


Broken Cogs

by mganjyil



Category: RWBY
Genre: Dealing With Loss, Fantasy, Gen, Philosophy, Psychology, Self-Discovery, Slice of Life, Some Action, remnant, vacuo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2018-07-28 15:36:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 102,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7646866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mganjyil/pseuds/mganjyil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lone survivor of a decimated tribe finds herself thrust into the heart of civilization.  While learning new skills and expectations, adapting to the harsh environment, and trying to cope with the frightening magic called technology; she discovers that the firesides stories of her tribe are true.  Now she must choose between Faunus and Humans and either unleash the power of the gods upon the desert kingdom of Vacuo, or save it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

     She stood at the edge of the camp, outside the large circle of people who had gathered around the mother-to-be.  The mother had suddenly gone into labor as they were making their trek across the forest back towards their winter camping area.  Upon the first cry of pain, the scouts had immediately shot out into the forest to scan for any danger and the rest of the small band had moved towards this tiny clearing to help the mother bring their hope and future into this world.   All eyes were turned to the poor mother, everyone anxiously awaiting the cries of life that would fill the woods.  Of all the people, Caelestis was the only one who refused to even glance towards the woman surrounded by the midwives.  The moans and groans that often accompany childbirth sent shivers down her spine and made her cringe.  Childbirth was a natural part of life, but it only ever made her feeling like fleeing from the cries of pain.  She hated it.  She knew that soon, it would be expected of her to lie in the center of a ring of people, midwives scurrying like bees around her, and everyone holding their breath in expectation—and that terrified her even more.  It didn’t help that she was a useless spectator, either.  Everyone else had some kind of role—except Caelestis.  She wasn’t trained in the ways of midwifery, though her people had tried and found her completely intolerant of puss and mucous; so she couldn’t help there.  She had failed the tests of the warrior and scouting because of weak physical condition, so she couldn’t help there, either.  She was useless.

     The camp, such as it was, was far more interesting to look at.  It had been hastily set in a clearing surrounded by thick trees and a large boulder off to the side that served as a kind of shield from any potential predators or Grimm.  It was not an ideal camping ground, the defenses lacking, but there had been little choice.  Pushing on to the nearest village had not been an option, according to the midwife.  The baby was coming and it wasn’t going to wait.

     Caelestis shifted her stance as another howl of pain from the mother-to-be echoed through the trees.   She cast her gaze to the sky in hopes of a distraction.  The bright blue sky offered nothing to her, not even a bird.  Sparkling rays of golden sunlight fell between the branches of the forest behind her, carpeting the forest floor with golden patches of light.  A brief moment of silence filled the little clearing.  She took a deep breath, trying to enjoy the blue sky and peaceful forest scene.  Her peace was shattered by one of the loudest groans of pain yet.  Instinctively, Caelestis hugged herself and closed her eyes.  She had to do something, to help in some way and to distract herself from the blood and pain.  Slowly, she began inching back towards the ring of trees behind them, hoping to avoid drawing the attention of anyone near the woman.  The Elder was making a circuit of the ring of people, giving instructions to some and offering hope to others with gentle words and short gestures.  Caelestis paused where she was and waited until he drew near.  Sneaking away without talking to the Elder would bring the anger of the whole clan upon her.  She had to give a viable reason for her absence.  As soon as the Elder passed by her, she caught his arm.  He was a stick of man, almost half her size but with firm, strong arms and legs.  His eyes were old, a rare commodity among her people, filled with experience and wisdom that marked his age more clearly than the lines upon his weathered, tan face.  He turned his soft, brown eyes upon her and waited for her to place her request.

     “They’s needin a spark,” she said feebly, her voice quivering a slight bit.

     “Your season is comin,” he replied in a gravelly voice.  He always scolded her when she showed discomfort for birthing.  “You is shakin with fear.  I ken it, yea.” 

     “Yea, I is fearing, but I is mindin the evening comin,” she replied honestly.  “The air is coolin, Elder.  The babe and ma is needin a spark, specially the babe.”  The Elder considered her words for a long moment, gauging her with his powerful gaze.

     “You is hurryin’,” the Elder said finally, waving her off into the forest to collect the wood.  She bowed her head more to hide her smile of relief than to show respect, then turn and ran into the woods as fast as she could go.

     As she ran, her dark, ash-brown hair became tangled in the lower branches, forcing her to slow down and untangle them in frustration.  Caelestis carefully dislodged the twigs and leaves that had caught in the strands, and then shook out her hair to make sure nothing small was stuck.  She hated her long hair.  It was merely a sign of dishonor with her people.  Only the warriors and mothers were allowed to sheer their hair to levels that made living in the forest easier: the warriors, because they fought off the Grimm and protected everyone; the mothers, because they brought in and cared for the babies.  Both were considered the highest roles within the clan.  Her hair was the longest of the people because she had proven her uselessness time and time again.  Her weak constitution prevented her from participating and completing the rigorous training of the warriors, and the Elder was still struggling to find a mate for her from one of the other clans.  The remainder of her people was trained in basic warrior skills and was useful to the clan in other ways such as carrying things and setting up camp, so their hair was of a descent length to allow them to work.  Hers fell to her knees in a long mass of snarls and tangles, a mess of brown that so far only seemed to serve as a bothersome camouflage if she were lucky enough to be among a stand of almost-dead trees.

     The Elder had said that it wouldn’t be too hard to find a husband for her because she was pleasing to the eyes and had a good heart.  Reality had proven otherwise.  No one wanted to marry into a dying tribe, no matter the reputation and importance of the tribe to the other clans.  Her clan could solve a hundred disputes and bring peace to every clan, and yet none of them would give a son to them, not even to a potential heir to the Elder.

     “I is deadweight to the kin,” she muttered angrily to herself.  “I is nay of good.”  She sighed in frustration and pressed on, gathering branches and twigs into her arms.  She had to constantly twist and shake her head to move her hair and keep it from tangling around her bundle of sticks.  “I caint running, I caint fighting...” She kicked a rock angrily into the bushes, and then immediately let out an oath at the pain that shot through her foot.  She shook her foot, trying to keep a hold on her bundle of sticks while balanced on one foot.  She was sure she looked comical in that stance and berated herself for her vanity.  Suddenly, Caelestis stopped moving and turned her eyes to the trees above her.  Off in the distance, a bird sang out into the forest, filling the silence with its beautiful song.

     “I is needin to stop...”  She grabbed another twig and shoved it into her pile.  She knew she needed to settle her emotions, and quickly.  If she didn’t, she would attract a Grimm.  That was the last thing her tribe needed.

     A strong breeze flitted unexpectedly through the leaves, creating a delicate accent to the gentle song of the birds hidden in the brush and above and causing the dapples of golden light to dance around her.  She closed her eyes, letting the music of nature seep into her heart and massage away the anger and frustration at her own failings.  Things would work out, she knew they would.  The Elder was the best negotiator and mediator of any clan.  He would work something out for her.  He had already shown interest in training her for taking his place, saying that she might have the potential for Shaman.  That was something very rare.  A Shaman could also possibly save the tribe, being able to better defend against the Grimm and being held in higher respect than any elder. 

But that was in an unseen future; a potential future that may or may not come to pass.  The present demanded that everything be done to make sure that this birthing was successful.  As the youngest of the tribe, she was looking forward to having little babes to care for and play with.  Everyone had thought that there would never be another birth again, but old Maize had suddenly shown lasting fertility before the change that would make her barren.  The Elder of the river tribe predicted twins.  Twins!  Imagine that!  If twins were born, her tribe would be saved for sure!  They would have a future.  Years of Grimm attacks and battles caused by other tribes had taken its toll on her people, whittling them a couple of handfuls of mostly elderly people.  If it was twins, they would have a chance to live again.  It was the one miracle they had all been praying for.

     A sharp, piercing wail shook her out of her reverie and brought her to the present.  It was not the wail of a babe taking its first breath of air.  It was a piercing, soulful cry that stopped her heart.  The wail steadily increased voice by voice, full of despair and pain.  

     “Nay...nay...” she breathed in horror.  The Elder and midwives had all agreed that the babe was healthy and well.  It had kicked and moved around—even she had felt it—and the pregnancy had been completely normal.  It was impossible for anything to have gone wrong, and yet the keening wails of her kinsmen continued, increasing in intensity and volume.  It had been a still birth, something they had not prepared for.

     The wailing suddenly shifted in tone, going from the death of soul to the blood-curdling scream of agony, completely shattering the peacefulness of the woods and frightening away the songs of the birds.  Grimm.

     Caelestis dropped the twigs and branches and took off at a dead run, moving as fast as her legs could carry her.  Her chest constricted as she ran, immediately tightening around her ribs and seeming to squeeze the air from her lungs, but she ran on.  She made it to a large tree and paused, doubling over with her hand on the rough trunk to keep her balance.  Desperately, she gulped in air to her starving lungs and tried to still her pounding heart.  Deep, painful coughs shuddered through her body, forcing her to her knees and denying the precious commodity of air that she desired.  Already, the shrieks were beginning to lessen voice by voice.  Caelestis struggled to pull herself up to her feet again, holding on to the tree for a final moment to gather her courage.  Then, she shot recklessly forward to the dying screams and horrible roars that filled her ears.  Somehow…somehow she just had to help!  She didn’t know how or what she could possibly do, but she couldn’t stand there and do nothing.

     When she finally broke free of the shadow forest and into the brightly lit clearing, she skidded to a halt.  It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the bright, unfiltered sunlight.  Her breathe was coming in desperate gasps, her head spinning slightly from lack of oxygen, and her heart thudding in her chest like a drum.  The moment between dark and light seemed to last for an eternity, and when the veil of blindness was lifted from her eyes, she screamed.  The horror before her was from the depths of her worst nightmares.

     Across the field, half-torn bodies lay scattered like leaves.  The ground was slick with blood, entrails, and bits of bones and other substances she had no knowledge of.  A pack of beowolves had descended upon the grief-stricken tribe like lightning, tearing and devouring everything in their path.  Not far from her, she could see tiny little hands that must have belonged to the infants.  Across the field, she saw the elder facing off against the Alpha Beowolf, brandishing the one long knife that her tribe had managed to trade for years ago.  He swung the sword, taking off the tip of the finger of the Bewolf.  The Beowolf howled savagely and slammed its serrated claws into the chest of the old man.  The Elder’s head flopped back and rolled until his eyes fell upon her.  The light within them was already gone.  The field was almost completely silent now, with only one or two figures vellicating among the dead.

Caelestis stumbled back from the gruesome sight, collapsing against an old oak tree at the edge of the field.  She could still hear screaming coming from some far-off place.  It was echoing in her ears in a constant rhythm, as if unable to silence itself.  Wide-eyed and trembling, she tried to pinpoint the source of the screams, hoping against hope that someone had managed to survive.  It was a moment before she realized that it was she who was screaming hysterically. 

From the center of the carnage, the alpha Grimm raised its spike-laden head and glared at her with burning red eyes.  It let out a thundering roar, showing its razor-sharp teeth dripping with blood and saliva.  Slowly, it rose on its hind legs to show its full height, the spikes and stone-like armor grinding against each other as it moved.  The other beowolves turned to look, let out a few grunts, then promptly ignored her and the alpha in favor of their own meals.

     The beast let out another roar, falling to all fours and charging towards her in a murderous frenzy.  She was paralyzed with fear, her screams catching in her throat as the creature came at her at full speed.  Its maw opened wide, showing her rows of sharp teeth and a tongue smeared with its previous meal.  Her fingers dug into the soil beneath her as she pressed herself up against the tree as if begging for its protection.  The warriors, the elder, the whole tribe was completely dead.  There would be no one coming for her.  Time seemed to slow to a painful crawl as the Grimm closed the distance between them.  She squeezed her eyes shut, tears filling her eyes.  No one would come for her.  Only death.


	2. The Saviour

     The soft hiss and crackle of a fire stirred her from her slumber.  Slowly, she attempted to crack open an eye only to be blinded by the intense light of a nearby fire.  She immediately closed her eyes again and let out a low groan as a sharp pain sliced through her head.

     “She awakens,” an unfamiliar voice said.  Caelestis frowned at the words, confused because the intonation was off yet the words themselves were from her own tongue.  Gathering her strength, she attempted to open her eyes again.  The fire seemed to sting her eyes with its light, almost willing her eyes to close again.  It was only by sheer force of will that she managed to keep them open and take in the scene around her.  Before her was the familiar sight of a crackling campfire, small and ringed by stones to prevent it from spreading to the brush.  The cheerful dancing of the flames and the pain in her head gave her hope that somehow, she still lived.  If not, then it was not a bad start to entering into the Twilight.  The throbbing pain in her head was sitting just behind her eyes and seemed to pulse in time with her heart, giving her more reason to believe that she might still be alive.  She moved to touch a hand to her head but found that her hands were bound tightly behind her back by a material she was unfamiliar with.  Unlike the leather thongs her tribe used, it was rough and scratched against her skin each time she attempted to shift or move her wrists.  Her feet were similarly bound, she soon discovered.

     “Yeah, sorry about that,” the strange voice spoke up again.  The only word she recognized was “sorry” though the “yeah” also was close to the yea in her language.  She tilted her head awkwardly to look at her captor—and promptly let out an ear-piercing scream that hurt even her ears.  Wildly, she began twisting and writhing in her bonds, kicking out her legs in a mad attempt to flee the monster that sat mere inches from her.

     The monster had the shape of man with strong, muscular arms and a broad chest, and the horrifying Grimm mask that had haunted her life.  The creature was dressed like a man, probably to lure its victims in by making them think he was a trustworthy human.  Around his torso was what looked like a white, hard shell that opened in a V-shape for the neck and sealed down the front.  A black band wrapped around the waist, matching the material that was worn around his legs and feet.  The style of clothing was strange and the material unknown to her, but Caelestis knew of tribes in colder regions that dressed as thoroughly.  She herself had worn more furs in the winter when it was too cold.  The Grimm mask, much like its animal counterparts, was a stone grey in color and covered all but his mouth, which looked human as well.  Red markings dripped down the front of the face, crossing the eyes and falling to the cheek.  Grimm.  A Humanoid Grimm.  All her life, she had heard stories of such creatures.  It was common for her mom to warn her of being a good girl or the Man Grimm would come and eat her.  As she grew up, she began to think of them as just stories to scare the children, but now she saw one sitting before her very eyes.

     “What!?”  The Grimm Man jumped to his feet, hands at the ready, immediately grabbing a long, cylindrical metal object and aiming it at the shadows around them as if expecting a threat to jump at them. 

     “I is nay goin’ to the Twilight!  You is nay eatin’ me, devilish Grimm!” she shrieked, twisting and contorting her body in a wild attempt to rise to her feet, to fight, to run.  The creature looked down at her.  Without warning, it began laughing quite joyfully at her fear.  He set the strange weapon (for why else would he swing it around like that) aside.

     “You talk funny, but I think I understand what you are trying to say—you think I am Grimm!”  He laughed again, a deep, pleasant sound that gave her pause.  He took his seat beside her again.  “Hold on... look...” Slowly, he reached up behind his head and fiddling with something around with a black cloth.  She had assumed that it had been part of his skin, but it seemed to be just another covering.  Just as slowly, he removed the mask to reveal a very human face.

     She took in his features, sharp and angular like a perfect warrior.  His eyes gleamed sky blue, his short hair was sandy-blonde and styled like spikes on his head.  His cheeks were a little red from having been under the mask so long, accentuating his sandy beige skin.  Setting aside the mask he had removed, he ran his fingers through his hair and shook it out a little. 

     “See?” he said.  Caelestis nodded a little, confused by the transformation and still on her guard.  She had never heard about Grimm being able to transform themselves, but she wouldn’t put it past them.  They were evil demons, lost souls, and could not be trusted.  It occurred to her that she had seen plenty of animal masks made of wood or leather among many of the other tribes she occasionally visited, so perhaps he truly was just a man.  Maybe he thought such a mask would protect him from the Grimm.  Caelestis studied his features, looking for any kind of clue that it was an illusion that would soon shatter, but no hints revealed themselves.  He was just a man.  Caelestis lifted up the upper half of her body from the ground and tried to look around the camp, scanning the darkness and light for a familiar face.

     “Min...min kin?  My kin is where?” she stammered, looking around expectantly.

     “Huh?” was the stranger’s only response.

     “Min kin!” she snapped in frustration.  He blinked, not fully understanding her.  She searched wildly in her memory for another word.  Maybe he was from one of the further tribes she never saw, the ones who lived around the south, beyond the rivers.  “Kin...kazoku...fam...”  She began listing every word she could think of, he would recognize one of them.  The stranger had a thoughtful look on his face as she said each word slowly, waiting between each to be sure he recognized it as a word before continuing on to the next.

     “You mean your family?  The other people?” he asked. 

     “Yea!  Yea!  Min kin!  Family!  Kin!” she nodded vigorously.

     He said nothing, looking toward the fire.  A veil of sadness fell across his face, revealing to her the answer she had dreaded.  She nodded slowly in understanding.  Gone.  They were all gone now.

     “Sorry,” he said softly. 

     “Nay.  You is good.  The Grimm comed quickly..” she fell silent, the images of the blood and carnage suddenly filling her vision.  Gone.  She was alone.  She blinked rapidly, trying to prevent the tears.  If she lost control, the Grimm would find them.  She was lucky once.  She couldn’t count on luck again.  “You saved I from the Grimm?” The stranger blinked and turned his gaze to her once more.  That thoughtful look once more took over.

     “No,” he replied at last.  “I saw a flash of light and smoke in the sky.  By the time I got there, there was nothing but bodies, evaporating Grimm, and you.”

     She blinked at the amount of words he spoke, screwing up her face in concentration as she tried to pinpoint words she knew.  There were too many at once, but she thought she could catch the main point of his words.  She shook her head.  Smoke.  Sky.  Nothing.  Bodies.  Grimm and you. 

     “The Grimm goed to the sky, yea?” she asked.  The stranger seemed to have as much trouble understanding her as she did him.  He frowned, his brows furrowing in thought as he took in the sentence.

     “Yeah, you could say that,” he said hesitantly.  “Hmm...This isn’t working.  Let’s start more simply.  But first—“

The man rose to his feet and took out a small knife from his belt.  It glinted in the firelight, the red from the flames making it look as though it were painted with blood.  Caelestis stiffened at the weapon, her eyes as wide as saucers as he began to walk toward her.  Had she been wrong?  Was he really Grimm and going to kill her?  She let out a little squeak of fear, unable to even voice a cry or plea.  And then he was behind her and kneeling down.  Caelestis could feel the touch of the cold metal against her skin as he slipped the blade under her bounds and cut the ties.  Stiffly, her shoulders rounded forward as the tension was released from them.  After he had cut free her legs, she curled away from him in a defensive poster.  Her wrists were ringed with red, angry marks from the binds and hurt.  She rubbed at the wounds while looking down at her freed feet.  Her ankles had similar markings around them.  The man resheathed his knife and stood.  Caelestis watched him cautiously as he made his way back to his make-shift seat, still rubbing at her injured wrists.

“Sorry about that,” he muttered, giving a slight nod of his head to indicate the injuries she had received.  “I wasn’t sure what you would do when you woke, so I thought I would take some precautions.  Now to business.”  The man straightened his back and squarely faced Caelestis, his legs spread shoulder-width apart.  He rested both hands on his knees.  He locked his sky-blue eyes on her deep-green ones, and then pointed to his chest with a firm jab.

     “I am Corin,” he said, tapping his chest with his finger on the final word.  Caelestis sat back on her heels and rested her own hands in her lap.  She took in each word, turning them carefully over in her mind.  After a moment, she nodded.

     “Corin,” she said, pointing to him.  He nodded, smiling.  She pointed to herself, deciding to copy the sentence pattern he had used.  “I am Caelestis.”  She copied his intonation and pacing exactly, annunciating each word carefully, adding emphasis to her own name.  “Caelestis.” She repeated her name, saying it carefully to be sure he could remember it.  For some reason, people always struggled with remembering her name properly.

     “Good!  Good!” he seemed relieved.  “This may not be so hard after all.”  Corin visibly relaxed in his little seat.

     “I am Caelestis,” she said.  “You am Corin.”  In her mind, she had figured that instead of saying “is” his people said “am”.  Already, she was thinking about her future and how she was going to survive.  This man had saved her, even if he hadn’t saved her from the Grimm.  If she was going to live, she would have to convince him and his Elder to let her into the tribe.  In order to do that, she would need to have good command of their language, which meant that she had to start learning it now and start using it immediately.

     “Ah…close,” Corin chuckled.  “I am Corin.  You _are_ Caelestis.”

     Caelestis frowned.  A different word for you?  This was going to be trickier than she thought.  Settling back into a more comfortable sitting position, she tried again, pointing at each of them in turn.  “I am Caelestis.  You _are_ Corin.”  He nodded, seeming to be very pleased with her quick progress.  Caelestis was already going over different possible sentences in her mind with you and I and already wondering what would happen for other pronouns.

     “Well, there is hope for us, then,” he smiled.  She smiled back, pleased to see that they seemed to have the same idea.  If he was willing to teach her, then that meant he might already want her to join the clan.  The rivers of fate were seeming to flow in her favor, but she still didn’t completely trust him.  Not all clans were welcoming, safe places for strangers.  If he was part of the famed swamp tribe to the west, then she was trading one death for another.  Rumor had it that they devoured the flesh of humans.  The memory of the story made Caelestis tense.  She didn’t think that he was part of that tribe, as she had also heard that they were sickly and thin creatures.  He was more like a giant.

     “Corin, you is…you are?...helped me.  Why?” Caelestis slid herself closer to the fire and threw a stray leaf into it, unwilling to meet his eyes.  She felt nervous about asking him such a question, but she had to be sure she could trust him.  The leaf erupted into a small puff of smoke as the flames devoured it quickly.

     “Looks like we got a ways to go for communication,” Corin sighed.  He had turned his head away from the fire and was now looking out into the growing darkness around them.  Caelestis gave him a questioning look, unable to understand what he had just said, and waited patiently for his reply.  Corin sighed and reached his arms up above his head in a prolonged stretch.  He was looking everywhere but at her and seemed very uncomfortable with the question.

     “Corin?” she prompted gently.  He glanced at her, and then quickly looked away.  It was in that brief glance that she caught a glimpse of the pain that was running through his mind.

     “Well...because,” he paused, then sighed.  “I…”

     Immediately, Caelestis reached over and touched his shoulder.  Whatever the reason for helping her, it was something that involved pain for him, something that hurt him.  She could just imagine someone asking her a question that made her remember the attack and not being able to answer.  She didn’t want to cause him that kind of pain.  “Corin.  Nay tongin’ the why is good.  You is—you are good, you is tongin’ the why.  Yea?”

     “Tongin?” Corin frowned.  His eyes suddenly brightened as he connected the meaning of the word to his own language.  “Well, isn’t that an unusual way to say speaking.”  He let out a forced, bitter laugh devoid of any humor.  “Yeah, don’t worry about why.  Maybe I can explain later.  For now, you still need your rest.”

     Corin reached around and pulled a bag from the tree behind them.  It was a fairly large bag, about the size of a torso, and was made with a stiff yet flexible material.  It had two straps, indicating that it could be carried on the back when necessary, as well as a handle near the top.  Pulling on two strings, he spread open the hole at the top of the bag and dug around for a moment before pulling out a long stretch of fabric that wasn’t quite fur but looked like the general shape of a fur blanket.  He tossed it to her before setting the bag down beside his seat.

     “You sleep,” he said.  “I will stand watch.”

     Caelestis examined the strange blanket, her fingers caressing the silky smooth surface.  It felt thick and soft, but the outer surface seemed cool.  She was too exhausted to examine it any further and immediately pulled the blanket over herself as she lay down on the rough ground.  The realities of what had happened and what could happen were turning wildly in her mind, making it difficult to contemplate sleeping, but she knew she needed the rest.  Her head still felt like it was being split open by an Ursa and she was physically drained.  Besides, she was pretty sure that after some good rest, she would be better able to piece together his strange language and habits.  The Elder had always praised her sharp mind and aptitude for languages.  That was one reason he had been considering her for an heir.

     After she had found a comfortable position, she closed her eyes and prepared for the torrent of thoughts to overwhelm her.  To her surprise, only the darkness of sleep engulfed her.

*******************************

     Corin watched the strange young woman curl up on the hard earth and pull the sleeping bag over her as if it were a blanket.  Her innocent, straightforward usage of an object he took for granted amused him enough to warrant a soft chuckle.  Maybe another night, he would show her how to use it properly, but he could tell that she was exhausted.  He had no doubt that she would be able to pick up several new concepts with little problem just by the conversation they had had.  She was extremely intelligent and quick to piece together a puzzle, even in her current state.  He figured that mentally, she was in shock and not responding very well to the loss of her people.  It made him nervous about the inevitable breakdown she was bound to have, but he figured that he would deal with that when the time came.  There was no sense in worrying about the future like that.  Corin had noticed that she constantly squinted her eyes and rubbed her forehead throughout their conversation, as if she was in great pain.  It made him curious as to what exactly had happened in that clearing when the Grimm had attacked.  When Corin had arrived, she had been curled up tightly against a tree.  The tree had been charred black and a ring of soot had surrounded the girl, making it obvious that she had been the source of the flare of light he had seen.  But how?  What had she done?  If he had been anywhere else, he would have assumed that she had used her Semblance to defend herself—but she seemed to have no memory whatsoever of what had happened and nothing about her indicated Aura training.  He wished he had a better handle at detecting Aura levels, but that had never been his specialty, so he would just have to let it be until they got back to civilization.

     Corin paused, the realization that he planned to return to the city and bring her with him finally dawning on him.  When had he decided to do this?  And more importantly, why was he bothering with this strange woman?  It was that final question, the same as she had just asked, that had bothered him.  This person was nothing to him.  He had no obligation to her or anyone anymore, and yet he had taken her into his care without a second thought.  Why?  He was anything but a knight in shining armor.  Destroying innocent lives had been the center of his whole career—his whole life.  There was nothing in him that would do anything heroic on any level.

     Caelestis had instantly fallen asleep and was breathing softly under the sleeping bag.  He watched the sleeping form for a while, meditating upon the possible reasons for him interfering with this creature’s life.  His first thought was that it was based purely on physical attraction.  She was a young woman, wearing nothing but a leather and grass wrap around her waist and several beaded necklaces.  Her dark brown hair had streaks of silvery-white and flowed around her like a cape.  Her rosy, porcelain skin seemed to shimmer slightly, especially along the biceps of her arms.  Her deep green eyes were inquisitive and intelligent, her voice was pleasing and gentle, and her demeanor was innocent and pure.  Any man would react as he had in his situation.  It was the simplest, most reasonable answer and the only one he wanted…but he knew it wasn’t the right answer.  Sure, it probably had some influence, but he knew the real reason.

_Don’t kid yourself, Corin_ , he snapped at himself.  No, the real reason he had helped her was because of the carnage that surrounded her.  The moment he had walked into that clearing, had seen the bodies and blood, he had broken.  It was the small village, all over again, him holding the torch over his head to ignite the roof while young children screamed and begged for their lives.  He still saw the faces: young, innocent, human children first looking at him with wonder and then fear; young women shrieking and running like rats; old people were just staring at him, waiting for the fall of his knife or bullet from his gun.  His heart had shriveled under the touch of such brutality, filling him with remorse for each life he took.  The blood was still fresh in his minds, the cries still ringing in his ears.  No matter how hard he tried, he could not stop those faces from haunting him. When he had entered into that field, he had seen it all over again.  He saw each kill, saw each face as clearly as if it were just happening.  As the memories consumed him, he saw Caelestis lying there in a hollow of burnt ground and the carnage of the Grimm and still breathing.  The rebel within him that he had silenced so thoroughly at that time burst out of him.  Without thinking, he had lifted her up and carried her as far as he could: away from the massacre, the blood, and the unending screams.  After they had travelled quite some distance, his training kicked in.  As far as he knew, she was human, and so he immediately began to treat her as a human.  He tied her up to be sure that she couldn’t attack him suddenly, and then continued on his way.  During the time she had been unconscious, he had grappled with his own conscious.  His training and belief dictated that she should die by his hands.  She was a human and therefore the enemy, regardless of where she was from.  But that rebel in him, the one who no longer wanted to kill, argued against it.  That part of him insisted that his life should change, that he should redeem himself and set right the horrors he had committed.  The internal argument lasted for hours and ended with him deciding that he would not kill the girl.  Instead, she would be the start of his redemption.

     Unfortunately, he hadn’t thought past getting her away from the blood and gore.  He had decided to leave the rope on because he was not sure of her reaction upon awakening.  She might well destroy him in the same manner she had the Grimm.  Her reaction upon first seeing him had made him glad he had kept her tied up.  He hadn’t expected that.  He had completely forgotten that he was still wearing the cursed mask of the White Fang, a thing that had become like a second skin to him.  Even now, he felt a little naked without it on.   Her reaction had made him more certain that he had chosen the right path.  What good ever came from looking like Grimm?  That should have been his first sign ages ago.

     Now Corin faced a more immediate danger: returning to civilization.  He was certainly wanted for treason and would be killed on spot.  If Caelestis was spotted with him, she would face a similar fate—or worse.  He knew of one particular place he could take the girl to where she would be safe and well taken care of.  After that, he could take off for a more isolated spot and not worry about her.  The last thing he wanted to do was seal her fate with his.  The problem with this plan was that he would have to go through White Fang territory to get her to the safe house.  It seemed like he had very little chance of being successful in this.

     Caelestis murmured in her sleep and turned over, her long brown hair dotted with leaves and twigs in the firelight.  He wasn’t quite sure what she said, but he was sure it might have had something to do with her family.  He watched her until she settled back into silence.

     Corin rose to his feet and started pacing around the fire, his eyes watching the perimeter as he thought.  He still had the small boat he had stolen from the ship yard.  It was a prototype model that they had stolen from an Atlas shop in Vacuo.  With it, it was easy enough to cross the expanse of the water in a few days rather than weeks.  If he entered the southern regions of the city, he could avoid detection and have time to get her to the haven or get her to someone who could.  From there, he could leave her in confidence, knowing she would be safe.  If he stayed, it would only bring the White Fang on her.  Between now and then, he could drill her on the basics of the language.  Their tongues were similar enough; it was just a question of re-teaching her patterns and introducing her to new words and concepts.  There wouldn’t be much time, but it would be enough to get her started.  The biggest challenge would be to prepare her for things like technology.  Even if he explained it, she wouldn’t be able to imagine it.  Well, he would worry about that later.    

     The beach was only a couple of days walking, less if they kept up a quick pace.  He could hunt for food for them and manage the camp until then.  As he mentally planned out their trip, he wondered if she even knew what a boat was.

     Corin continued walking around the camp, turning over ideas in his head and trying to choose the best path for the two of them.  As he whiled the night away in this manner, he barely noticed the sun rising in the east.

*************************************************

     They had been walking for almost two days now, at a clip that was similar to the one her elder set when they were traversing dangerous territory.  At times, it was a bit of a struggle as she was not completely recovered from the events in the clearing.  She tried her best not to let it show, not once complaining or indicating that she needed rest.  Even when her chest felt like it was going to burst, she pressed on.  By her reasoning, she had no clue where they were, but she was certain they were nowhere near the path her clan had laid out over generations.  They could well be into the death stalker’s territory, or worse. 

Over the course of walking, they would share their language with each other.  Corin would present things to her in simple sentences and she would repeat the sentence and try to make her own with another object nearby.  He was straight the point, never using more words than he felt necessary.  Caelestis wished that he would use more words and longer sentences, but she didn’t press him about it and eagerly drank up every new word she could.  He had never confirmed that he was taking her to his clan, but she knew without a doubt that this was the case.  She would need to master this new language if she was to survive.

     She found that many words were very similar.  A tree was a tree, a rock was a rock, and so forth.  There were many words that were so different, she had trouble recognizing them.  The word order and some pronunciations were so strange to her.  She always forgot that “are” followed you and “is” was only used for other people.  It was very frustrating, but she kept at it, constantly correcting herself.  It helped that he was the only one she could talk to, so at least that change was coming more easily than others.

     Corin often attempted to describe the things she would see in his home, but she merely stared at him blankly.  Whatever he was trying to say was so far beyond her experiences that she couldn’t even imagine it.  Still, they kept at it stubbornly, both of them focused on making her transition as painless as possible.

     Caelestis immediately noted a change in the air upon the start of the third day.  It was a strange smell, similar to the mountain lake she visited but more pungent.  It wafted on a breeze stronger than usual, coming from the general direction they were traveling.

     “Almost there,” Corin said as he cleared up the small camp he had made.  There wasn’t much to making their camp, but Corin took charge of all of it.

     By the time the sun was high in the sky, she finally beheld their destination.  They had climbed a steep incline that nearly stole her breath away, leaving her gasping for air near the top.  Once she reached the crest, her eyes beheld a sight that almost stopped her heart.  At the bottom of the hill was a familiar sight: sand.  She had seen it often enough around the lake near the mountain home.  After the sand, a huge body of water stretched out into eternity.  It seemed to kiss the sky where the sun would rise, undulating like a demon before her.  Caelestis stared at this vast stretch of water, her knees shaking slightly.  She had heard about such a water, described by the river tribe as the Big Waters.  It seemed an appropriate name.  Corin did not hesitate and headed down toward the shore in quick strides.  He paused when he noticed that Caelestis was not behind him.

     “It’s not so bad, I promise,” he gave a reassuring smile and gestured for her to follow him.  Caelestis stared at Corin as if he were asking her to kiss a Beowolf.  When he only shrugged, she turned her gaze back the unending expanse of blue in disbelief.

     “We are crossing here?” she asked, her voice quivering slightly.  Corin turned his gaze to the waters and nodded. 

     “Don’t worry,” he assured her.  “It isn’t so bad.  A few days, and we will be done.  I promise.  I just need to make sure we have enough food.”  He started off down the hill again towards the water.

     Caelestis gave a small, slow nod, then began following after him.    The transition from grass to sand was gradual and almost imperceptible.  The biggest difference was from temperature: the grass had been cool and the sand was now warm.

     “Be careful of Sandspikes,” Corin warned.  She didn’t need to ask what he meant.  Obviously some kind of Grimm would live here.

     Corin made his way along the shore at a brisk pace, his feet sliding slightly on the sand as he walked.  He paused before a pile of boulders and disappeared into a niche that she hadn’t noticed.  She waited patiently, kicking at the sand and turning nervous eyes to the water before her.  The waves rose and fell like moving hills, white foam painting the shore with each slap.  Bits of dark green and red leafed plants dotted the landscape, clinging like hair to the wet sand.  At times, the sand seemed to tremble or shift as if something walked upon it.  Caelestis stiffened.  Grimm were coming.  She didn’t know what kind of Grimm Sandspikes were, but she knew enough about sand to know that it only moved when something disturbed it.  The wind was strong here, but not strong enough to cause that kind of movement.

     “Corin…” she called out softly.  A strange grumbling sound from the hole in the rocks was the only response.

     A moment later, a large gray thing seemed to burst out of the pile of rocks, skittering across the waves, and then rolled across the surface of the water to face her.  Corin was sitting in the center of it, fiddling with something she couldn’t see.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the trembling sand was coming closer and closer.  Caelestis didn’t wait any longer: with a yelp, she leaped into the cold water and began wading towards him as fast as she could.

     “Grimm!” she cried out, cupping her hands over her mouth to project the words further.  He raised his hand to indicate that he heard her, then began directing the thing towards her. The sand burst apart behind her, a snake-like tail shooting out towards her at lightning speed.  Caelestis dove to her left, falling into the water with a loud splash and narrowly missing the striking appendage.

     “Caelestis!” Corin yelled.  He was holding that same cylindrical object and aiming it at the shore.  There was a loud _boom_ and a cloud of smoke.  The tail withdrew with an animalist shriek of pain indicating that he had hit true.  Corin seemed to be directing the water beast with one hand while holding his weapon at the ready in the other.  As he neared, he reached down and hauled Caelestis into the thing.  Once she was settled onto the bottom of the metal beast, he slammed his hand onto surface of the central pedestal.  The thing shot forward, redirecting itself away from the shore.

     “So much for stocking up,” Corin sighed.

     Caelestis shivered at the bottom of the craft, water dripping from her hair and chin, creating a puddle of water around her...

     “It is…?” she said through chattering teeth.

     “A boat,” Corin replied.  He left the central pedestal for the front end of the boat, kneeling down before its small metal wall.  He grabbed hold of a small protrusion and pulled at it.  It opened up, revealing a gaping hole full of various items.  Reaching in, Corin grabbed a thick blanket from the recesses and closed the door.  He turned around and wrapped the blanket gently around Caelestis’ shivering form, lifting a corner of it to cover her hair.  “Use this to dry yourself.”  He turned back to the panel he had stood at before and began messing with things on it.  Caelestis watched him with interest, occasionally hearing a chirp or cheep from it as he pressed various things.

     The boat lurched forward suddenly before stopping atop the waves in silence.  Caelestis looked back and was surprised to see that the shore was nothing but a barely visible, dark streak on the horizon covered by a thin mist.

     “I have to input our destination,” Corin explained as he pushed and pressed at things on the surface.  “Auto-pilot is easier and means I can focus on other things.”  Caelestis pulled the blanket more tightly around her and nodded, though she really didn’t understand what he was talking about.  The boat rocked on the water as he worked, a steady rhythm that made her feel a little sleepy.  Her eyes gazed out over the sparkling water, taking in the rising waves and blue sky above.  It was beautiful, in its own terrifying way.  A sudden movement across the waves snagged her attention.  The waves were moving strangely, not rising as much as churning.

     “Corin,” Caelestis said in a soft voice.  Were Grimm in this vast water as well?  Most likely.  She couldn’t imagine what kind of Grimm could live out in this water, but the churning pool was shifting and moving closer. _No more…_ she thought to herself.  She hugged herself more tightly, trembling violently at the thought of more Grimm.  She didn’t want to see another Grimm ever again.  She just wanted them to vanish and never come back.  Caelestis squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying desperately to reign in her fear and focus it into a more positive emotion, but it was too difficult.  She couldn’t pull herself back anymore.

     Corin raised his eyes and took in the movement towards them, then looked back to the panel.  His movements were becoming faster and more agitated, his hands flying across the surface like the wind.  The boat began to rock more wildly as the churning water came closer and closer.  A thing shot out of the water, striking the boat . She barely had time to see the suction cups on the underside before it disappeared.  The boat rocked and tilted, but managed to stay upright.  Corin grabbed that cylindrical thing again and aimed at the water.  He let off a round into the center of the whirlpool, then pulled back and took aim again.  Another slender, snake-like arm shot forward, attempting to wrap around him.  He let out a cloud of smoke from the weapon, then leaped to the side.

     “Get over there!” he bellowed, pointing toward the panel he had recently closed.  Caelestis immediately obeyed, crawling along the deck as quickly as she could.  Two more arms shot forward, long and thick with skin that glistened in the sun.  Corin dodged one and shot at another.  He raised his arm as the first curled toward him again.  Long quills shot out from his arm, piercing it and forcing it back.  Both disappeared again, but the water was twirling more violently.  Corin looked toward the water, then toward the panel again.  His brows smoothed over as he came to some kind of decision.  At that moment, a tentacle whirled toward him from the opposite side of the whirlpool.  Just as it pierced through his chest, he slammed his hand onto the central pillar.

     “CORIN!!” Caelestis shrieked in horror.  His blue eyes locked on her, his face lighting up in a small smile as blood trickled out of the corner of his mouth.

     “This is my fate,” he whispered as the snake-like arm lifted him up into the air.  Caelestis leaped forward only to find an invisible, cold field holding her back.  It glistened a light cyan color, preventing her from following after Corin into the cold waters around her.  The boat roared to life and shot forward at a speed she had never thought possible.  The silhouette of Corin’s limp form vanished under the waves and into the mouth of the whirlpool that had attacked them.

     Caelestis could only watch in terror from the deck of the boat.  She banged on the shield, screaming and crying for him to come back, calling his name over and over again.

     “Nay!  You nay go to the twilight!  I is alone!  Don leave I alone!  CORIN!!!”  But the shield was unyielding, and Corin was gone, vanished into the big waters.  She was completely alone.  Caelestis fell to her knees and curled up into a fetal position on the deck, dimly aware of the drops of blood that pooled were Corin had just stood.  With nothing left, she began to sob uncontrollably until she fell asleep.

 


	3. A Day in the Life of...

     “Look what I got!!”  Onyx whirled into the room, waving a thick white envelope wildly in the air.  Her thick mass of wavy, jet-black hair and satin-like bustle skirt trailed behind her like a ribbon, following her movements with each turn.  Stav didn’t even shift as she lifted a single eye to take in her teammate as if to confirm the importance of the announcement.  Her tawny gold eye followed the movements briefly.  Once she seemed satisfied with her assessment, she pulled her hat over her eyes with an annoyed sigh.  Onyx didn’t even miss a beat.  “Tickets to the Vytal Festival!  We can all go together!  I even got permission from the doctors to bring Gauri!  Won’t it be fun?”  She plopped down on the bed beside Stav, beaming from ear to ear, her cool umber face flushed from the dash she had made to the room.  Stav’s only response was to stretch out her long legs and knock Onyx off the edge of the bed and onto the floor.

     “Ouch!  Hey!”  Onyx rubbed her bruised backside indignantly and glowered at Stav.

     “Are you really so naïve, or just so incredibly stupid that nothing seeps into that thick skull of yours?” Stav said irritably without even glancing at her.  “Why in the world would you drag an invalid half-way across the continent for a day of blood and gore when it is perfectly accessibly from the television?”

     “I figured you would have appreciated the sentiment,” Onyx snapped.

     “Please.  I am not into such petty vindictiveness.  I require a far more elegant and fitting solution.”  Stav took hold of her top hat and tilted it to further shield her face from Onyx’s glare.  Stav had always been a fan of formal attire and today was no exception.  Her flared jacket was spread out on the bed like a flower, the deep blue shade standing out against the dull blankets.  She had left her platform clunks on, but had managed to prop them on the footboard rather than the actual blankets.  Onyx always felt that the style made her look too boyish, even though it was close-cut to her body and showed her narrow figure quite well.  Of course, Onyx never really liked formal wear anyways, so she knew her opinion was biased.  Kale had always loved the look, and Stav’s straight golden-blonde hair helped off-set the style.  It was currently fanned out across the pillow and draping down the side of the bed.  If not for her biting words, one would have thought she looked like sleeping beauty.

     Onyx slowly and gracefully rose to her feet in a fluid movement, like a dancer rising on the stage.  Below the calm, graceful movements, her frustration was boiling.  She was sick and tired of the abuse flung out by Stav daily and she knew just the way to extract revenge.  Turning to face her end of the room, she walked in slow, with over-exaggerated, casual movements towards her bed.  The layout of their room followed a square pattern placing her bed directly opposite her destination.  Before long, she was standing between her own bed and the one Kale used to occupy.  She paused and turned on her heels with just enough force to make grate across the thinly carpeted floor.  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Stav rise up on her elbow, eying her movements.

     “What do you think you are doing?” Stav demanded.  Her feet silently touched the floor as she prepared to stand. 

     Onyx completely ignored her, leaning forward to smile at a framed photo on a shelf on the wall next to the bed.  It was an unusual setup that Gauri often favored because it allowed her to work in the middle of the night.  Onyx thought it was annoying and Stav thought it was ridiculous, so neither of their beds had the shelf cubby built into it.  Only Kale had thought it was a cool idea and had begged Gauri to make her as similar setup...

     “Don’t you dare…!” Stav hissed.  Her hand shot to the side to grasp her cane, which was leaning against the post of the bed.  Again, Onyx ignored her completely.  She calmly, and with large, dramatic movements, placed her hands upon the frame and lifted it up from its spot.  She twirled gracefully and flopped down onto the bed, then let out a cough as a cloud of dust enveloped her.

     “DAMN YOU!”  Stav leaped to her feet, her cane snapping forward in a threatening manner.  Onyx stared down the round-knobbed top calmly, still holding the picture.  Her dark brows narrowed over her obsidian eyes.  For a long moment, the two stared each other down, the sparks almost visible between them.  “Get off!” Stav growled angrily.

     “No,” Onyx responded calmly.  “This is my room, too.  I have just as much right to sit here as you or Gauri.  If I want to sleep here, I will.  If I want to clean the sheets—which really need it—I totally will.  If I want to have a massive three-way make out session—I WILL.  And you can’t stop me!  You are not god and judge here.  This is not _your_ private property!  Now if you want to take a swing, be my guest—“And at this, Onyx flicked her wrist and smiled as a twin blade shot forward from her wrist-guard.  “But I will make you regret it.”

     Stav stood there, her whole body trembling violently.  She was like a volcano just waiting to explode, almost unable to contain everything within it.  Onyx held her gaze steady, her body relaxed and ready.  Then, all at once, Stav swung her cane around behind her.  The ball of the cane flew from the cane, connected by a long chain, and slammed into the far wall.  With another smooth flick of her wrist, the ball returned to its home at the top of the cane.

     “I’m outta here,” she fumed, storming from the room like a thunderstorm.  She slammed the door behind her as she left, sending a shudder through the entire room.

     Onyx let out a breath of relief, allowing herself to go prone on the bed.  She hadn’t been sure that Stav had been bluffing this time.  She had been lucky.  Onyx gave another flick of her wrist, re-sheathing the twin blades.  Once her heart had stopped thudding in her chest, Onyx rolled onto her feet and stood.  She turned her gaze to the indent of the wall just above Gauri’s bed and tsked.  Gauri would be pissed when she came back.  If she came back.  Probably the headmaster wouldn’t be too happy about having her property damaged either.  Onyx knew little about such repairs, but she figured she could probably put a poster over it or something. 

As she was examining the casualty of the argument, she suddenly felt all of the energy in her flee.  Her shoulders slumped and her head sagged.  She glanced at the picture still clutched in her hand and sighed again, this time sadly.  It was an old picture taken at the end of their first year of school.  Gauri was on one side with a small smirk on her mouth and Stav was on the other, giving a happy smile to the camera.  Onyx stood beside Kale, her arm on Kale’s shoulder and throwing a peace sign.  Kale was grinning from ear to ear.  Kale’s smiles were always full of warmth and kindness, like a rainbow after a cloudy day.  Her smiles themselves were never huge, face-splitting grins, but the joy they emitted made them seem like they filled her whole being.  When people usually first saw Kale, they were put off by her.  Her half-shaved head and various styles of mo-hawk were an unusual style and the dozens of piercings and tattoos that painted her body were generally frowned upon.  Between her love of fishnets, spiked collars and torn T-shirts, it was amazing that anyone ever gave Kale a chance.  But they did.  They always did because of that smile and that habit of her always being open and accepting, no matter who or what it was.  Onyx kissed the tip of her finger and then pressed it to the image of Kale.

     “They have changed so much, Kale,” she whispered to the picture.  “Stav is a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off and Gauri…it is like she has given up on living.  Neither of them are the same anymore.  Stav blames Gauri.  I think Gauri blames herself, too—but I know it wasn’t her fault!  If only you were here…you could fix it.  I know you could.”  Onyx reverently placed the picture back in its spot on the shelf, letting her fingers lightly caress Kale’s smiling face one more time.  “I can’t fix it.  This plan failed, too.  At this rate, the headmaster will kick us all out of the academy and that will be it.” She paused, staring at the picture for a long moment and trying to shake off the hopelessness that settles on her shoulders.  “I don’t want to lose them!”  Onyx knelt down before the bed, staring with pleading eyes at the frame.  “Please, Kale.  You’ve got to help me.  You were always good at these kinds of things.  You gotta show me what to do—Please!”  She pressed her hands together in prayer, clasping them tightly before her, and bowed her head.  She held onto that wish--that thought for a long moment before rising again.

     “I’m going to go see Gauri,” she said softly.  “When I come back, I will wash the blankets for you.”  Onyx turned and paused to consider the damage to the wall one last time.  “I’ll ask her about how to fix that.  She always loved fixing and making things.”  Dejectedly, she walked to the door and then stopped.  She took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, then snapped them open and smiled.  “I can do this.  I know it!  I will find a way.  You’ll see!”  She opened the door and left the room, closing it gently behind her.  

　　　　　The hall was empty, every door closed down the long corridor.  It was after lunch and most students were on their way to classes.  Onyx briefly supposed that she should pop into her class, but then shrugged the thought away.  No one from her team had been to any of their classes since that time.  Onyx was sure that if Stav bothered to go to the classroom, it would only take ten seconds for something to piss her off so much that she destroyed everything within a ten mile radius.  Something like a lecture seemed too unimportant in the grand scheme of things now, anyway.

     She made her way out into the courtyard, her thin heels clicking across the hard-stoned path toward the hospital section of the campus.  The sun was shining brightly in contrast to her suddenly dark mood.  Even as she walked, though, the warmth of the sun mercilessly pressed down on her, coaxing out her former cheerful self and filling her with confidence.  It would work out.  She knew it would.  Kale would help her: she had never failed to before, so why would something as trivial as death stop her this time?  Onyx turned her dark eyes to the sun and smiled at the azure sky, making a promise to herself to not give up.  As long as she still had breath, she would fight to save her team.  Even if she was expelled from the academy and forced back to the sands, she would fight to bring them all together again.

     “Onyx!” a delicate voice called out in the distance.  A thin hand waved like a flag in the wind to get her attention.  Onyx blinked and focused her eyes a moment, then beamed.

     “Echo!”  Onyx shot across the distance to the frail creature sitting on a bench under one of the awnings that stretched out between the buildings.  Echo was the epitome of fine breeding.  Her pale skin and thin, delicate arms moved like wisps in the wind.  Soft, pale blue hair hung in curls down her back and framing her childish face.  The first time Onyx had met Echo, she had thought the wind would blow her away.  She had been afraid of shaking her hand, afraid that she would snap the bones just by touching them.  All of her fears had been laid to rest when she first saw this willowy being fight and came to understand that she was anything but delicate.

     “The professors have been asking of you,” Echo chided in her gentle manner.  “You have not been present in any classes.  You really should not be wasting such valuable time.”  Despite the words, she was smiling warmly.  Echo had known Onyx and her team since the first year.  They had joined together on many projects and missions, often helping with homework and training.  Echo was the type to mother anyone that came within hearing range of her voice, much to Stav’s chagrin.

     “Yeah, you know how it is,” Onyx shrugged noncommittally.  Onyx brightened.  “Hey!  Would you and your team like to go to the Vytal festival?”  Onyx took out the envelope she stuffed into her pocket without realizing it and waved it around in an attempt to entice her.

     “Another failed venture, I take it?” Echo cooed.  Onyx shot her a look.

     “Just a slight miscalculation,” she huffed.  Echo gave a delicate smile and took the envelope gently from her grasp.

     “Sumi would definitely be pleased,” she said finally.  “My family has box seats, but these seem to be much closer.  I may be able to win over a fellow spectator to be able to sit with them.”  She cocked her head slightly to the left and gave a magnificent smile.  There was really no other word to describe it.  Onyx sighed.

     “Damn you, you even make smiling look elegant.” The two girls giggled together at Onyx’s jab.  She was never silent about how envious she was of Echo.  She hated all those etiquette and formality things, but to see it done so effortlessly made her wish that she had spent a little time at it.

     “Well, I must be off.  The lecture will be starting soon and I really could not bear missing it.  Ta-ta!”  Echo took off down the walkway at a fast clip, seeming to glide across the ground as she went.

     “See ya!” Onyx called after her.  She turned her own attention to her destination.  She always felt like a stomping elephant after spending time with Echo.

     By the time she spied the hospital, the area was almost completely devoid of any people.  A few stragglers dragged their feet or made mad-dashes toward the lecture halls, but they were few and far between.  Onyx walked purposely into the hospital, smiling a brief greeting to the staff before heading towards the elevator.  Gauri was on the sixth floor and she was certainly not going to take the stairs.  The staff had given up long ago on trying to convince her to go to classes.

     Gauri’s room was a corner at the end of a long hall.  Onyx slowed her steps as she approached the door, steeling herself for another episode.  Dealing with a hothead was a lot easier than trying to put energy into a well for Onyx, and she always felt drained after visiting Gauri because of this.  She prayed that there would be some improvement this time.  Once her courage was set, she pushed open the door and put on her best smile.

     “Look who’s come to visit!” Onyx called out.  The room was fairly large for one that held a single occupant.  It was a typical hospital room with partitions for each bed and two large windows for each side of the room.  There were three beds on each side of the room, each with an almost identical setting and spacing.  Gauri was the only person who occupied this room. 

     Gauri was in her bed, her face turned to the open window.  Onyx could never figure out what she found so interesting outside the window.  It looked out onto the far side of the courtyard and really didn’t have a good view.  Still, Gauri looked out the window every chance she got as if there was something important or interesting to see.  Her head had been shaved and was wrapped in thick bandages, her left arm held in a thick arm cast and sling.  Her right leg was held in a horse swing, also wrapped in a thick cast.  She didn’t stir when Onyx entered.  Onyx walked around the bed to put herself in Gauri’s vision.

     “Hi!” Onyx said cheerfully.  Gauri gazed at her with her lavender eye glazed and empty as she stared, and said nothing.  Her golden skin was a sickly pale from lack of sun and activity, her cheeks starting to hollow as she refused to eat as much as the doctors and nurses begged her to.  “I thought you might like some company.  How ya been?”  Gauri just held her gaze, as if waiting for something profound.  Onyx fidgeted under the stare, unable to think of what to say. 

“The professors have been asking after you,” she tried again.  Still no response.  Onyx threw her hands up in frustration.  “Aw, c’mon, Gauri!  At least say something!  I know you didn’t lose your voice!”

     “Leave me alone,” came the hoarse reply.  Gauri turned her head away, shifting her body to look into the room rather than at Onyx.

     “Well, at least you said something,” Onyx sighed.

     Another long, oppressive silence settled between them.  Onyx sat herself in the chair set aside for visitors and fiddled with the ruffle of her gray skirts.  Over two months and the patterns of the visits never changed.  It was like talking to a brick wall most of the time.  Gauri had always been the quieter one of the group, but it seemed like now she couldn’t even string more than a couple of words together.  Onyx never relented until she got at least a word or two—even if it was just to hear Gauri say “go away.”

     After an hour of silence, Onyx rose from her seat.  She reached out a hand toward Gauri, but merely received a cold, empty stare before her fingers even brushed her shoulders.  Onyx let her arm fall back to her side, the swish of her bolero’s fabric seeming loud and oppressive in comparison to the silence that had held reign.

     “I’ll come by again later this,” Onyx said.  Onyx made her way toward the door and stopped at the sound of a grunt.

     “Don’t,” Gauri said in a quiet, rough voice.

     “But—“

     “Just stop, please.  Don’t waste your time on me.”  Gauri reached across the bed with her good arm and yanked the privacy curtain so hard that it swirled around the bed, concealing her in an instant.  Onyx stared at the white barrier between them.

     “I’m not giving up, Gauri, not on either of you!” Onyx blurted back.  She fled the room, the sound of her heels clicking loudly on the linoleum floor.

     Outside in the fresh air, Onyx slowed and came to a stop.  _I won’t give up on them.  I will never give up on them.  I will find a way, dammit!_   She swore silently to herself. 

     With lunch finished and the last classes already underway, Onyx had little to do to occupy her time.  She decided she would take a walk around the campus until evening, and then try to think of a new plan.  Maybe she would head into town.  She often found inspirations around the downtown area.


	4. Journey Across the Sands

     Lily sat comfortably on her chair, her slender legs crossed at the ankles as she peered over the reports that she had received earlier that day.  Most were already uploaded onto the computer and easily accessible, but several of them were still organized in files and folders.  “So, what do you think, Tarian?” She asked in a silky-sweet voice, looking up from the paper she held in her hand.  Tarian tilted his head so that the brim of his fedora hat was pointed toward her, really the only indication of which direction he was looking in since the hat prevented anyone for seeing his eyes clearly.  His long hair was tied back in a braid down his back, tinted green at the tips and fading up to almost-white.  His short leather duster was faded with time and his boots were covered in fresh mud from the training fields.

     “I think you shouldn’t have killed that girl,” Tarian replied bluntly.  Lily rolled her eyes in exasperation.  It was a remark that he always made when they went over the files she had managed to filch from the facilities.  He was still thinking of that, months later.  .It was one of those few things that he disapproved of so much, he couldn’t help but state it every chance he got. 

     “I had very few choices in the matter,” Lily snapped.  “If you care so much, you could at least call her a woman instead of a girl.  She was woman enough to attack me, so she was woman enough to die.  In any case, I was talking about the strategy to take the artifact.”  Lily allowed herself to sit back in her chair and ran her fingers through the long, silky fur of her tail.  It was the same bright golden color as her hair, which was currently swept up into a messy bun with loose curls framing her angular face.  She had spent hours in the early morning shaping the curls, taking great care that they were the exact shape she wanted.  Even in the merciless desert, she took extra precautions to protect her beautiful flaxen skin.  She prided herself on her beauty and feline grace and took every opportunity to flaunt it.  Lily was the type of person who could saunter into the room and capture the attention and hearts of anyone there—man or woman.  It was a charisma that she used to her advantage.

     “A full frontal assault like that will bring every ally to their aid,” he said simply.  “If the thing is as big as you say it is, it will be impossible with a small infiltration team, let alone an all-out attack.  Many lives would most likely be lost.”  Lily nodded.  If there was one thing she could count on, it was Tarian’s honesty.  He always spoke his mind and never hesitated in that.  As annoying as that trait could be, it was very useful in times like these.  It was because of him that she had managed to adjust possibly futile ideas into raging successes.  On top of that, his loyalty was sound.  He had had plenty of opportunities to betray her and had declined every one.  It was because of these two traits that she had made him her right-hand man.

     “It is true,” she conceded as she set the file and paper aside.  “We will have to blow half the building open just to get it out and then carry it out and away without leading them to our base here.  Transportation crafts are neither that fast nor silent.  We will have to modify one.  And timing will be important as well.”  It didn’t help that the object would be difficult to attach anything to.  It was like a large boulder, smooth and unmarred, and tall enough to rival a small building.  How they managed to get it in there was uncertain, but there was most likely a larger door somewhere that she hadn’t had time to find.

     Lily sat back, her amber eyes drifting to her computer screen.  On a whim, she hit a few keys and brought up various weather reports.  She had just remembered a very vague conversation she had had with another member earlier and thought that maybe this was the event she had been waiting for.  She had asked the old man to submit his report with the weather team and it looked like he had done so in a timely manner.

     “Ah…this might work,” she smiled.

     “What is it?” Tarian asked without moving from his accustomed spot on the chair opposite her.

     “There is a major sandstorm coming this way soon,” she smiled.  “It will run right through the city, if the projections are accurate.   I want you to get a team on it and run the data to be sure that it will.  We can use this as cover.”

     “That might work,” Tarian nodded.

     “I want you to go through the recruits and chose the ones that are not able to meet our requirements as White Fang,” Lily continued.  Tarian raised his head at this, his horns framing the back of his head in the typical curl of a ram.

     “You want to send them on a suicide mission?” his voice rose in protest.

     “I want to give them a chance to prove themselves,” Lily corrected.  “If they can come back from this—alive—then they are worthy of joining our numbers.  If not, then they would have been a detriment to our cause.”  Tarian was grinding his teeth at this, a sure sign that he was not happy with this decision.

     “If we only send the inexperienced, it will raise the suspicions of our enemies and increase the chance of failure,” he said through gritted teeth.

     “Fine.  Choose a couple of worthy warriors to accompany them.  I suppose if they can’t do this, they were miss-chosen,” Lily huffed.  “They will be the first assault and draw as many of them to the opposite side of the campus a possible.  When the storm hits, I will detonate the building.  I want the craft on standby and ready to go in an instant.  Make sure that the modifications focus on speed and add a cloaking device as well.”

     “The course?” Tarian asked.

     “It will have to loop around to here, taking a long way and drawing no attention,” Lily tapped a few things into the computer and frowned.  “Having it ride the storm is too dangerous for the cargo, but leaving the field of the storm will make it conspicuous.  We’ll have to plot a course for only a short distance, at least until a kilometer away from the campus.  After that, have it loop up towards the cliff-side, skirt the city and come back around towards the edge of our base.  We will need another team to plot out the best course.  Get them on it immediately.  Have them work closely with the team tracking the storm—everything will hinge on that storm.”

     Tarian gave a casual salute.  “Yes, Ma’am.”  I will get right on it.  He was angry with her.  More than angry, and it showed by his sudden formality and tight voice.  Lily didn’t pay any attention to it because she had seen that attitude before.  She let him have those moments because she felt it helped solidify his solidarity with her.  If she denied him, she might well set him on a path to working against her.  Little outlets for such things were important.

     Instead, Lily nodded, extremely pleased with herself as usual.  It had been risky to go by herself to get the intel on the artifact, but worth every risk.  If she got her hands on this now, she would have an advantage over Adam and his main team.  Years of playing second fiddle had fostered an envious hatred of him and the main force, making her jump at any opportunity to prove her worth and ability to the leaders of the White Fang.  If she could get this thing, figure out how to make it work, then he would be answering to her for a change and she would get the recognition she felt she rightly deserved.  After that, she would see to it that the Faunus would rise up and claim vengeance for all the wrongs they had endured.  It was the one goal she felt was long overdue, and her secret opinion was that it was because of the incompetence of both the leaders and, in particular, Adam.

     “Anything else, Lily?” Tarian asked, rising to his feet.  She was about to answer when a beep sounded from the intercom on her desk.  She hit the button quickly.

     “What is it?” she demanded.

     “Intruder detected on the dunes just outside the city, heading in our direction,” came the clipped reply of security.

     “Intruder?” Lily prompted.

     “We aren’t sure, exactly,” the voice corrected himself.  “We picked up on a humanoid lifeform walking steadily towards us.  Seems they have been walking from the canals further west.  We are not sure where they are from or their purpose, but their course is directly towards our eastern quadrant.”

     “Very well, send a drone to determine whom we are dealing with, but don’t catch their attention if you can help it,” Lily instructed.  “Follow their path back to their origin—there should still be something left.  If they prove to be a threat, or they are human, take them out immediately.  If not, then maybe we can use them to our advantage.  Keep me informed.”  Keeping her eyes open for any kind of opportunity was another trait she had fostered over the years.  It could be the intruder was nothing, maybe a possible recruit, but no more than that.  Still, it never hurt to be certain.  Walking across the burning desert was not exactly normal or even sane, which meant translated to an opportunity for Lily.

     “Yes, Ma’am,” came the affirmation.  The line went dead as the security guard disconnected the call.

     “You aren’t one for gambling, Lily,” Tarian observed.  Lily arched a delicate eyebrow at him and gave a small, innocent smile.

     “You get so attached to your recruits,” Lily replied.  “I figured having a stranger to direct would ease your conscious more.”  Tarian said nothing to this.  “That is all.  You are dismissed.”  The sarcasm was not missed by him.

     Tarian rose to his feet, the hard heels of his boots clicking on the metal floors as he exited.  For all his loyalty, he disapproved of many things that they had to do to reach their goals.  It was a problem at times, but the benefits were worth the hassle.  It was the only reason she permitted it.  If she wanted brown-nosing, she could go down to the barracks or the training rooms and get all the lavish praise she desired.

     Lily took out a brush from the top drawer of her desk and began running it through the thick hair, brushing it slowly to soothe her nerves and help her think.  It was the one thing that kept her calm and drew her into an almost meditative state.  Anyone walking across the dunes by themselves was either extremely lucky or a fool.  She had uses for both, if she could reach them.  Not only that, but the timing was just too perfect for her.  She didn’t believe in coincidences.  As far as she was concerned, everything happened for a reason, and this intruder was most likely going to be another example of just that.    

**************************************************************

Caelestis shielded her eyes as she gazed off into the distance.  The sun was scorching hot across the sky, slowly beginning to settle into the horizon.  Silhouetted by that brilliant light in the far distance was a series of tall, rectangular-shaped rocks that seemed to be reaching for the darkening sky.  A strange, eerie light seemed to embrace the rocks, protecting them from the eternal darkness of night.

     “The rocks…they is Corin’s home?” Caelestis wondered aloud.  She pulled the bag from her shoulders and flipped it open.  On the top was what she had figured was a map on strange material.  It seemed like everything was of strange material now.  She pulled it out and unfolded it carefully as a previous attempt had shown her how delicate the material was.  Turning it this way and that, she tried to figure out the orientation of the map as she had tried to do a million times before.  The majority of markings made no sense to her, but one thing had stood out: a big star.  She had assumed the star was her destination as her own people had used the symbol to indicate a goal many times.  If she was right, she was heading in the right direction…or at least she hoped.

     Her time on the waters had been spent preparing for her time on land.  She had used Corin’s bag and put as much food as she could find—or at least recognize, the blanket he had given her upon their first meeting, strange containers holding water, and a rectangular object with thin material much like the map.  This last item had caught her attention and had filled her with curiosity.  It was full of strange markings much like what was on the map, and she suspected that it had belonged to Corin himself since it was among his things.  She had also decided to bring the strange Grimm mask he had worn upon their first encounter as well only because it reminded her of him.  She carried the cylindrical weapon more as a club than anything else because she had no idea how to use it.  All she knew was that needed to defend herself somehow, and this weapon was better than nothing.   

On the first day of walking, she had moved at a fast pace across the sands, quickly figuring out a method for walking that would not slow her down.  Over the course of time, the bag had slowly become heavier and heavier as she walked despite the fact that eating and drinking should have made it lighter.  While Caelestis noticed this, she didn’t really care.  All she could think about now was surviving.  It was the only thing driving her forward and keeping the dreams at bay.  Sleeping had been poor for her since Corin died.  Dreams of blood, of screaming, and of loss dominated her nights, making it impossible to stop for more than a couple of hours to recharge.  As long as she was moving, as long as she had a goal, she didn’t need to dream.  She used the lack of sleep to continue her journey across the sands, using the moon as her guide and drifting across the dunes like a phantom. 

At first, the fierce sun had not seemed to bother her, but now, after a few days of walking, she found her skin starting to redden and hurt in random patches.  Despite grabbing all the recognizable food she could, she was already running low.  The hard biscuit food was not very filling and difficult for her to digest, but it was all she had.  She didn’t recognize any of the plants and she was not the best of hunters.  She knew her time was running out, and the sight of the stones in the distance had given her new hope.

     Putting the map back into the bag, she shouldered her meager belongings and pressed forward.  If she pressed hard, she would probably make it by the middle of the next day.  She wasn’t completely sure of the estimate, though, because there were no landmarks to help her scale the distance.

     “An other long darg,” she sighed.  Caelestis walked steadily across the sand, her tired eyes straining to see in the dimming light.  Miles of sand stretched in all direction in rolling hills that resemble the Big Waters frozen in place.  Here and there, she could make out small outcroppings of rock or a plant that looked like a stiff tree with no leaves, but nothing else.  Blue and brown had replaced the blue and green of the waters.

     From the skies above, a strange humming sound suddenly caught her attention.  It was a gentle sound, like the hum of a bird’s wing, and was heading towards her from the rocks in the distance.  Caelestis stopped moving and watched as the small object flew closer towards her.  It was the strangest bird she had ever seen, with wings that didn’t seem to move and no head to speak of.  It buzzed along overhead without seeming to give her much notice, heading towards the direction she had come.  Her first thought was to try to bring it down—fresh meat would definitely be welcomed after days of that strange biscuit.  She let the notion go, however, realizing that she had no way to cook the meat, let alone bring the bird down.  Knowing her luck, it would fall right into the valleys between the sand hills and she knew she didn’t want to go there. 

     Once the creature had flown past, she resumed her journey, scanning the sands as best she could for signs of any danger.  Since landing, she had been surprised to find life in the wasteland.  They were all unusual creatures, as far as she was concerned.  A snake that couldn’t seem to crawl in a straight path wriggled sideways upon the sides of the sands.  A large lizard danced across the sands in an alternating leg-lifting pattern.  She even saw something like a rabbit, but with coarser fur and a thinner body.  One such creature had ventured into the valleys between the hills and had promptly been sucked into the sands without a sound.  Since that event, Caelestis avoided leaving the sand ridges she walked upon.  There were always times she had to descend, though, and she would throw rocks or sticks or whatever she could find to test the sands before her until she was back to the safety of the ridges.

     Caelestis had walked on through the night, her body demanding the sleep she denied it.  To her surprise, she found herself at her destination long after the sun had been swallowed by the horizon, proving that her estimation had been way off and that the goal had been much larger than she had thought.  The air was now cold, sending shivers down her spine, but the sight before her was more than she could bear.  Her long journey, her fight with the sun, the sand, and avoiding Grimm—it had all been for nothing.

     Before her stood an impregnable wall of rock that sloped upwards to the sky.  She could see the tops of those strange rocks within, peeking out at the sands from their sanctuary.  Some of them were shiny.  Some of them had light.  All of them mocked her with their security and her hopelessness.  Not a hand or foot-hold could be found in that smooth surface.  It was all one big, long piece that seemed to stretch around the entire village.  Caelestis had forced her tired legs to walk all night in the cold sands and had found it all for not.  With a cry of frustration, she flung her bag and weapon to the sands and kicked at a rock, only to give out another cry of pain.    

     “Ouch!” she shrieked as the rock split the skin on her blistered toe and caused blood to spill fresh across the sand.  Caelestis sat down in a huff and fingered the beads that hung around her chest.  She found the red crystal the elder had given her as a promise to teach her the ways of the elder and grasped it firmly in her hand.  She wouldn’t give up.  She had to survive.  She was all that was left.  In her tribe, there was something worse than death—it was called the second death.  It happened when either there was no one to remember you, or that the living did not honor you.  As long as she fought to live, she would remember them and she would honor them.  She had reached her destination.  Now she had to find a way into it.

     Gathering her things, she rose to her feet stiffly and examined the long rock wall again.  If this was truly a place where Corin had lived, then there must be a way inside.  She was sure of it.  To her left was the expansive sand that stretched on forever the wall curving off into the distance, but to her right the wall seemed to be making its way towards some cliffs. 

     “Rocks, I is—I am knowing,” she muttered to herself.  She had to correct herself with what she could remember from the short lessons with Corin.  Caelestis was determined to be ready for whomever she met inside the rock walls.  After making sure she had everything, she set off with her hand trailing on the wall in hopes of finding some kind of trick or opening.

******************************************************

     Lily sat back in her chair and watched the still images of the young woman making her way across the sands.  She had been studying the images for almost half an hour now, going over the details of the intruder and trying to determine her heritage.  She was a strange one, wearing almost nothing and badly damaged by the harsh environment of the desert.  Lily zoomed in on the images once more, her attention catching on the odd way that the woman’s skin seemed to shimmer or glint at different times.  It was almost as if she had something on her arms and chest.  The latest images she had received had been on the return of the drone and were better quality.  She was zooming in on a particular image that had the clearest resolution and found the pattern of scales tracing along the woman’s arms and seeming to branch across her chest.  She couldn’t see clearly because of the assortment of necklaces and beads, but it certainly seemed to cover her chest as well.  Scales.  They were a type of reptilian scale, almost transparent.

     “So she is Faunus,” Lily murmured.  “A half, probably.  That would explain the abnormal manifestation of her heritage.”  The girl had long, tangled dark hair and streaks of silver and white running through it like thread.  Her eyes blazed green with intelligence against her patchy, sun-burnt skin.  She had a very modern-looking bag slung over her shoulder that she kept shifting uncomfortably from side to side, as if the act of it touching her skin caused her great pain.  Seeing the woman, Lily was more confident about this being an important opportunity for her, and the reports from the droned seemed to confirm this for her.

     Lily turned her attention back to the reports from the drone.  The path of the strange girl led back to the canals on the other side of the sands, just as the security guard had predicted.  Traversing such a distance in such unforgiving territory was quite a feat, especially for a girl in little more than a loin cloth.  Lily was impressed.  At the canals, a craft had been abandoned.  It matched the description of the vessel that had been stolen when Corin had defected from the organization.  Between that and the bag the girl carried, there was only one possible conclusion.

     “So she has met the traitor,” Lily mused and brought up the controls of the drone on her computer screen.  “That might prove troublesome.”

     She had taken control of the drone after she had received the reports and had had the machine follow from a distance.  The girl had already noticed it once and she didn’t want that to happen again.  She wanted to see what this young woman was capable of.  At the present, the unknown Faunus was standing at the outer wall of the city and she didn’t look to happy.

     “So what are you going to do?” Lily asked the screen.  The girl abruptly rose to her feet and began following the rock wall back towards the cliffs that braced the north of the city.  “Good call.  So far, you see pretty smart.”  Lily maneuvered the drone to follow, curious to see the outcome of this event.  If the girl could find a way in on her own, she would truly be worth something.  The walls of the city had a long history of holding off hordes of Grimm when Vacuo was first settled.  Atlas had aided in expanding the walls and increasing their height, making them the perfect barrio against the monsters that lurked in the sands.  It plunged several kilometers into the soft sand and looped under the city to prevent the Sandworms from swallowing the city whole.  The wall was several streets-worth thick and housed long, narrow halls to allow entering and exiting the city without letting in the Grimm.  It was also designed for defense, meaning that certain entrances had built in mazes and others could lead you to those mazes if you didn’t know the pathway.  There was, of course, the main gate for everyday citizens, but the woman was not moving towards the main gates.

     “You called me, Lily?” Tarian had come in and was standing silently near the door.  Lily had heard the door slide open but had been so absorbed in watching the intruder that she hadn’t really paid any attention.

     “Remember the intruder report?  Well, turns out that we have some kind of wild girl walking around in the desert,” Lily explained, not once taking her eyes from the screen.  “She’s wearing nothing but beads and a grass skirt—well, maybe some leather.  Poor thing could really use a make-over.” She said that last part under her breath, then quickly recovered and said more loudly, “What do you make of it?”

     Tarian did not move from his spot, his head cocked to the side in thought.  “The Caravans are not tribal,” was his simple response.  Lily nodded that this was true.

     “That thought had crossed my mind,” she admitted.  “She came here on the ship that the traitorous bastard stole from us.”  Tarian’s silence was the only indication of his feelings on that subject, but she didn’t press it.  They had argued about that one enough times, anyway.  “I want you to go over the mapping of the boat and see where it has been.  That will give us an idea of whom we are dealing with, or at least where she came from.”

     “As you wish, Lily,” Tarian said.  He gave a curt bow and walked out of the room.  Years of working together, and the fact that he didn’t once say “Ma’am”, told her that he had gotten over their earlier discussion and approved of his current assignment.  Lily focused all her attention on the screen before her, leaning forward slightly to catch as much detail of the situation before her as possible.

     “All right, little visitor,” Lily murmured to the screen.  “Show me how smart you really are.”

 


	5. Grimm vs. Luck

     Caelestis had been walking along the wall for hours, searching meticulously for any kind of nook, crack or cranny that might serve as an entrance into the area.  The sun had passed around her to the other side of the wall, still blazing brightly in the sky on one side of the giant wall, but casting a cool shadow where she searched.  Her eyes strained in the gloom, each slow step feeling like an eternity.

     It was at this point that her eyes fell upon a recess darker than the shadows around her.  It was fairly large, at least the size of an average man, and sat in the wall like a hole.  This was it!  It must be!  Caelestis hurried her feet towards the gaping darkness, her excitement speeding her tired legs.  When she reached the shadow, her steps slowed and her hand instinctively clutched the shaft of her make-shift club.  Years of life in the forest and mountains made caution dominate her emotions in almost any situation.  She stepped toward the gaping darkness, the heavy “club” extended forward to test the depth.  Even from this distance, she could see what looked like a barrier in the shadows, and touching it with her weapon confirmed that something did, indeed, block the way.  Gathering her courage, she stepped up to the barrier and touched it with her right hand.  It was made of several wood planks hewn together by metal—what her people called shiny rock.  Upon her touch, dust and dirt crumbled to the ground.  A smell of decay was present, the kind of decay found from old trees that had fallen in the woods and slowly rotted back into the earth.  Near the edge of the recess that held the wooden barrier was an appendage of metal that was shaped in a loop and moved with a groan at her touch.

     Whatever it was, it was man-made, of that she was sure.  If man made it, that meant that man must be here.  There was no doubt in her mind now that this was the entrance she had sought.  Caelestis pressed against it, hoping to push it open, but it didn’t move.  She tried again and again, but it refused to give.  It was as solid and as immovable as the wall around it.  Carefully, she took hold of the metal loop and began to tug and pull at it with all her might, thinking maybe the barrier needed to be yanked open rather than pushed.  Her efforts yielded nothing more than sore shoulders and bruised hands.

     Caelestis stepped back to examine her situation.  The door seemed to be pretty solidly attached to the rock in some manner, though she wasn’t sure how.  She could not see any leather binding it.  If it was held by magic, like in the stories, maybe it needed a special word.  Caelestis began reciting words at random, going through her library of various tongues she had picked up during her life with her nomadic tribe.  She tried words that meant friend, family, please, thank you, the names of gods and goddesses, anything she could think of—but to no avail.  The barrier remained tightly shut.

     As she was standing there, deep in thought, a soft hissing sound gently caressed her ears.  She had heard that sound before, but was too distracted to respond properly to it on her own.  It was instinct alone that caused Caelestis to jump up, lifting her back leg high enough in time to miss the flash of a stinger from a Sandspike.  With a cry, Caelestis twirled and leaped again, narrowly avoiding the lightning flash stabs of the beast as the tail darted repeatedly out of the sand from various locations.  Dancing and turning, she managed to spy a small outcropping of rocks nearby.  She maneuvered her course to bring her more in line with the stones, hoping that the Sandspikes would not be able to attack her from the solid stone.  With a wildly leap, she found her footing on the island of rock and turned just in time to see the Sandspike retreating.  Caelestis let out a sigh and sank down.  Either the gods still favored her, or they were warning her that her time was almost up.  That was the first direct interaction with Grimm she had had since Corin’s death.  Now, her food was low and the scorching, hot air of the sands burned her lungs and had made her drink more water than she had wanted, and a Grimm stood between her and possible salvation.  Another day or two and she would be a bleached accessory on the sands.  She had to get in.

     Caelestis sat down to think, her mind turning over and over possible solutions and then rejecting each one in turn.  What she needed was power.  Some kind of force stronger than she to get the door open.  Her eyes fell on the weapon in her hand.  “Corin…” she whispered thoughtfully.  He had made the weapon explode with smoke, had even manage to destroy the beach a little back then.  Her answer must lay in this weapon.  If she could just figure out how to make it work!

     Her hands caressed the form of the weapon, the metal still warm from the sun.  On one end was an opening that extended like a round flower, the hole for its center going down the neck of the weapon to a wooden handle.  The opening, she knew, was where the power left the weapon so she kept it pointed away from herself as she looked down the shaft.  The wooden end had smooth, well-cared for wood and some designs carved into it.  Where the handle bent down, she found a metal ring and a singular protrusion that seemed moveable.  She touched it gently with her finger and it depressed ever so slightly.  Standing up, Caelestis turned to face the barrier near her.  She was in a pretty good spot for aiming, even though the bow and arrow had never been her strong suit.  She had to hope fate was with her.

     Taking a stance with her legs spread shoulder-width apart, she lifted the weapon and tried to mimic how she remembered Corin holding it.  It was a vague memory, distorted by the panic during the attack of the Grimm, but it was there.  She put her right hand at the trigger portion and held the barrel near the center where there was still some wood covering.  She took a breath and closed one eye, looking down the barrel toward her target.  Immediately she scolded herself for closing her eye and opened it again: how many times had Sean told her not to close her eye?  As she was looking down the barrel, she noticed that there was a small nob on the tip of the flower opening, helping her line up her sight much like the head of the arrow.  Taking a breath, she calmed her nerves and pulled back on the trigger with her finger.

     The recoil sent her sprawling to the sands behind her, landing roughly on her back.  Smoke trailed up into the air from the explosion and the loud boom it omitted caused her ears to ring.  As soon as she realized where she was, she scrambled to her feet and leapt for the rocks again.  The Sandspike’s stinger narrowly missed her shoulder.

     Caelestis let out a breath and looked up at the barrier.  She had hit true.  The hinge was now dislodged, but the block was still in place.  Caelestis rose to her feet and looked around for something to brace herself for another try, but found nothing.  The rocks she was on was mostly a round hump in the sands.  While a few stood higher than others, they were not high enough to serve as a brace and would more likely injure her than help her.

     Caelestis took her position on the rock again, this time kneeling down with one leg up to help stabilize herself.  She took aim again, braced herself, then let fly another shot.  This time, she teetered only slightly and managed to stay on the rock.  The shot was a little higher than the last one, but still hit the barrier.  The barrier still refused to open.  Caelestis could feel her frustration rising, but tried keep her focus.  She needed to focus.  She needed more power.  Caelestis set the weapon down for a moment and brought both her knees to the ground.  She took the small crystal the elder had given her and closed her hands around it in a small prayer to the gods to give her the power she needed to force this barrier open.  She felt the small stone warm in her hands in response to her thoughts and let it go.

     Rising to the previous position, she took her weapon in her hand and took aim.  She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the warmth from the crystal and then felt something sharp along her hands.  Still warm, but slightly different.  Caelestis’ eyes snapped open.  This was it.  She shifted the weapon, then let out a slow, even breath.  Her whole being was focused into this shot.  It was her only chance: she needed that door open.  Her finger moved on the trigger and the weapon came alive.  Instead of an explosion like before, a searing energy shot from the muzzle and through the air.  It coalesced into a cloud of fire and energy, hurling to the door and impacting it with a shudder.  Caelestis fell backwards, her head spinning wildly as sharp stabs of pain hit her eyes.  She put her fingers to her temples, cringing at the sudden pain.  The ringing in her head seemed to fill her veins.  With a groan, Caelestis leaned forward and cradled her head in her hands.

     She wasn’t sure how long she sat there in silence, cradling her head as the world spun around her wildly.  Eventually, slowly, bit by bit, the dizziness began to recede and the ringing began to dim.  When she felt steadier, Caelestis managed to bring her head up enough to look across the sands.  She had to squint as the blast of light from the weapon had temporarily blinded her to the shadows.

     The barrier hung slightly open, the edge of the wood showing the relative thickness before her.  Caelestis let out a sigh of relief and let her head fall again to her hands.  Somehow, she had done it.  The gods had heard her prayer.

     Her hands still trembled as she felt around for the weapon.  After the blast, it had fallen from her hands in a clatter on the rocks below and was not teetering on the edge of her little platform.  Clutching at it tightly, she brought it to her chest and scanned the area around her.  In the sands, her bag lay unmolested.  Most of the food and water had fallen when the bag had hit the ground, scattering around it like a dead leaves in the autumn.  The mask, square thing and map still seemed to be in the bag, at least.  The bag itself was a little off from a straight line to the door, lying unmolested.  The sands between her rock, the door, and the bag were still.

     Caelestis sat back on her heels to think as well as she could through the fog of the pain in her head.  She had to get to the door, but she didn’t want to leave those objects behind.  They had become important keepsakes, reminders of Corin and possible hints of who he had been.  But she didn’t know if she could get the bag and make it to the door at the same time.  The longer she stayed on the sand, though, the more time the Grimm had to come, which meant that she had to act quickly.  What was worse was that the barrier was not completely open, either, which meant that she would have to force it the rest of the way open. 

Caelestis looked over her weapon again.  The blast seemed to have scared away the Grimm in the sands, at least for the moment.  If she could set off another blast directly into the sands, maybe that would give her the time she needed.  She rose to her feet to look around.  Her eyes fell on a space of open sand off to her right, wide and untouched by rocks.  It was shifting slowly.  Caelestis’ blood froze.  She knew that pattern.  She had seen it so many times before, usually when an unsuspecting rabbit fell into the valleys between sands.  She did not know what kind of Grimm it was, but she knew that it would devour her in an instant.  She shifted the weapon into her hands and took aim.  The sand swirled faster and faster in a counter-clockwise motion, the center sinking like a whirlwind into the depths of the earth.

     As the sands moved, the center split open slowly, revealing an endless tunnel of sharp, vicious teeth.  It was the throat of that horrible Grimm.  Caelestis didn’t hesitate, pulling the trigger on the weapon.

 

Nothing happened.

 

     She pulled the trigger over and over again, but received a weak click in response rather than the explosive bang of before.  She let the weapon drop from its position, holding it tightly in her hand and staring at the deadly hole of Grimm teeth.  The weapon wouldn’t work.  What could she do now?

     Caelestis took stock of her area.  The sands were shifting again with other Sandspikes, and the newer Grimm seemed to be withdrawing.  The sands closed in upon it, covering the throat as it withdrew.  She would have one chance and she had to make it good.  Caelestis inched her way to the edge of the rock as close as she dared, bracing her foot as best she could.  She turned to the sandy space and hurled the weapon with all her might.  It slammed into the sands with a muffled thud, bounced, and then hit a rock before settling.  The Sandspikes immediately took off towards the sound, leaving the way clear for her.

     In one bound, she leapt as close to her bag as possible.  As soon as her foot touched, she pushed off and landed near the bag, grabbed it with one hand, then made another leap toward the door.  By the time her foot touched down near the door, the Sandspikes were losing interest in the unmoving weapon.  Caelestis seized the edge of the barrier and began pulling with all her might.  Slowly, the wood inched toward her, scrapping through the sands.  Her eyes involuntarily glanced towards the Sandspikes.  They were shifting their position towards her as she pulled at the barrier, the ripples of sand spread out across the space between the weapon and her location.  Again, she pulled and pulled, muttering every prayer and curse she knew as she jerked at the barrier.  She checked the position of the Sandspikes again and let out a sigh.  The ripples were gone.  Did they give up?  The relief was short lived, for even as she thought she would be safe, she noticed that a large ripple was spreading across the sands.  It was the other Grimm.

     Panic renewed her strength as she threw all her weight into making the opening big enough for her to slip through.  It felt like it took ages for each inch she gained as the Grimm sped closer and closer to her.  As soon as the barrier was open enough, she began forcing her body through it, turning sideways to scrap between the wall and the barrier.  Rough wood scrapped against her skin and splinters dug into her flesh as she pushed her body through the slender opening.  At that moment, when she was almost through, the Grimm leapt from the sands like a fish from the river, its wide triangular mouth split open to reveal the tunnel of teeth from before.  Caelestis shrieked as she fell back into the opening the rest of the way.  The beast slammed into the barrier, forcing it closed again in front of Caelestis and leaving her in near darkness.

     Caelestis was lying on cool, smooth ground that reminded her of the stone walls of some mountain caves she had been in.  Her heart was pounding rapidly in her chest as she clutched the bag to her.  The barrier was closed again, a small hole where she had shot it earlier allowing only the dimmest of light to penetrate the gloom that encased her.

     With slow, unsure movements, she sat up.  The darkness around and behind her was oppressive: the blackest of pitch.  She could see nothing outside of that gloomy light.  Facing the door, Caelestis moved a few paces to her left until her hand felt a smooth surface.  She reversed to the right for several paces again until she felt another smooth surface.  The most she could figure was that she was in a kind of cave that was a bout two people wide.  Before her was sunlight and Grimm, behind her the unknown darkness.  Resolutely, she turned to face that darkness.  The choice was obvious, but that unending night terrified her almost much as the Grimm.  Who knew what monsters, traps or secrets the darkness hid.  Caelestis squared her shoulders, preparing for the next venture in her journey, wishing fervently for a light of some kind to take with her.

     She placed her hand on the smooth surface beside her and began to walk forward slowly, feeling around with her foot to be sure that there were no holes or sharp objects.  After a few steps, she stopped and let out an exasperated breath.  Doing it this way would take too long.  She _needed_ a light.  Caelestis touched her necklace for a moment in thought.  The gods had answered her prayers before.  Perhaps they would again.  What the payment would be for a small light was uncertain, but it couldn’t be nearly as bad as what they extracted for opening the barrier.  She closed her fingers around the stone and closed her eyes, imaging again what she needed: light, soft and gentle.  A light strong enough to help her walk confidently in the darkness, no more.  Caelestis opened her eyes.

     The crystal around her neck was glowing very gently, a soft, dim red light that illuminated the path before her and gleamed off the wall near her.  Her headache from earlier was still pounding gently in the back of her mind and only seemed to get slightly worse, thought at this point it was barely noticeable to her.  Quickly, Caelestis removed the necklace and held it up before her like a torch.  It was enough.  Without looking back, she trod forward into the darkness before her.

*******************************************************

     Lily was just closing up her computer when Tarian came into the room.  A large stack of files and books filled his arms and almost blocked his view, but he walked with confidence into the room and set them down upon her desk on a clear space.  As he set them down on her desk, she spoke.  “Tarian, let’s go shopping.”

     Tarian paused in the middle of his arranging the files, but did not look up.  “Is this really an appropriate time for such frivolousness?” He asked.

     “There is always time for a little fun, Tarian,” Lily smiled.  She grabbed her bag from the back of her chair, her tail twitching with her impatience.  “I need an escort.  Let’s go.”  Tarian sighed and straightened.  How he managed to look at her without looking at her always bothered her.  She wanted to ask him to take off his hat and to stare her in the eyes, but she never did.  She had seen his eyes once, back when he was still a soldier, and they had been unnerving.  Even now, she shuddered to think of them.

     “Yes, Ma’am,” he replied curtly, standing at military ease near the desk.  Lily made a face.

     “I hate when you say that.  I always wonder when you are being sarcastic or just ornery.

     “Does it really matter?”

     “No.  I suppose not.”

     Lily waited a moment for him to see if he was ready.  When he gave a nod of his head to indicate that he was merely waiting for her, she turned to the door.  She was anxious to get the shopping district.  If her calculations were correct, the girl would come out around that area.  She wanted to snag her before anyone else.

     “It’s that girl again, isn’t it?” Tarian asked as he fell in step behind her.

     “Very observant of you,” Lily gave her sweet, patronizing smile.

     “Why are you so obsessed with this girl?” Tarian demanded.  Lily gave a small laugh at the slightly jealous tone in his voice.

     “I have an instinct for these things, Tarian, you know that,” Lily replied.  “She is going to be useful.  I can feel it.  But we have to get her first.”  She didn’t go into details as to why she felt that.  It wasn’t just the insane amount of luck the girl demonstrated, though that did help.  No, the most important thing was when she triggered the dust in the gun.  The girl had demonstrated a high level of control of Aura but with apparently no level of training.  Whatever her semblance was, it was powerful and something about the projection of it had caught Lily’s attention.  She felt as if she had seen it somewhere before, but she couldn’t identify what it was or why she had felt that way.  Between the mystery she presented, and her resourcefulness, how could Lily not be interested in her?   She had all the good qualities that she sought in recruits, and the added bonus of being a blank slate.  Obviously, this girl would know nothing about their culture or society and would be easy to influence.  The best recruits were the ones that could be controlled easily.  All of that would come with time.  First they had to bring her under their wing; then they could deal with indoctrination.


	6. A Chance Meeting

     Onyx twirled on the ball of her foot and caught Stav’s arm deftly in her hand.  “Come here!” she exclaimed, breathless from excitement.  Stav made an attempt to protest, but Onyx was already dragging her down the sidewalk towards a store window decorated in lace and pink hearts.

     “Look!  There it is!  Remember how much you said you wanted to buy that?” Onyx waved a finger at a pair of shoes sitting on display in the center.  They were chunky heeled platforms with lace straps and pink-heart designs.  Smiling skulls held bows to the top and near the toes, and studs sparkled on the square-like heel.  Onyx grinned in triumph: now Stav just had to snap out of her volcanic melancholy and show that sparkle of her old self.  Prior to the incident, she had been drooling over the shoes and going on and on about how she was going to purchase them later in the year.  She had been in love with the shoes!

     To Onyx’s disappointment, Stav glared at the shoes as if they had offended her in some fashion, then turned her nose up at them and began walking away.

     “But…but…!” Onyx cried out in desperation.

     “Your lack of intelligence has just been augmented by your lack of taste,” Stav sneered hotly as she strolled away.  “Those must be the most hideous shoes I have ever seen.”

    “But...you…at that time…” Onyx was baffled.  She had been so sure that this would work.  Instead, everything was backfiring.  Stav looked about ready to blow her top instead of sparkle.  Onyx sagged her shoulders in defeat and glanced accusingly at the shoes.  What had went wrong?

     “I am returning to the dorms,” Stav called over her shoulder.  “I am finished with this farce of an excursion.”

     Onyx made a move to stop her, but then decided against it.  There was no point in trying to force her hand when her plan had obviously failed.  She watched the retreating back of the tall woman with regret, her frustrating dissipating as her teammate grew smaller and smaller.  Once Stav was out of sight, Onyx gave a shrug.  It had been worth a shot.  She turned her attention back to the shoes, trying to figure out what it was she had missed.  Stav had gotten angrier rather than happier.  That shouldn’t have happened.  She must have missed something important. 

     “Well, when it’s thinking time…” she turned and laid her eyes upon a nearby ice cream parlor with a small smile. “It’s snack time!”  With a small hop, Onyx set off at brisk walk to quickly close the distance between herself and her destination.  Within moments, she was placing her order at the counter for her favorite triple-scoop chocolate, mint, and cookie-dough waffle cone.  Such a treat was one of her greatest pleasures in life and she found herself practically drooling as she reached over to receive the cone.  Just as her fingers clasped the paper-wrapped portion of her dessert, it hit her as to why her plan had failed.  She let out a groan, startling the shop clerk.  Dejectedly, she took a lick of the ice cream and turned to leave.

     How could she have been so stupid?  Stav had not fallen in love with those shoes for herself—she had planned to purchase them as a gift for Kale!  No wonder she had been so angry when she had seen the shoes.  All Onyx had succeeded in doing was twisting the knife of loss deeper into her heart rather than relieving the pain.

     Onyx stepped outside of the parlor, trying to enjoy her ice cream cone as she decidedly forced away the realization.  There was nothing more she could do, so there was no point in dwelling on it.  She would just have to be more careful in the future.

     As Onyx was about to turn down the sidewalk, a flash of movement caught her eye.  She turned her attention to the sidewalk across the street in time to see a figure dart into the alleyway and vanish into its shadows.  At first, she was going to continue on her way, but as she turned to walk, another figure caught in the peripheral of her vision.  This was a familiar form with a familiar smile.  The image had been brief, framed by stars and the tiny, flickering fairies that usually danced in the corner of one’s vision.  It was Kale.  Only she had such a smile.  Onyx turned in surprise, her full attention on the entrance to the alley way.  She could have sworn that she saw Kale’s form in the darkness of the alley, beckoning her to follow the figure that had dived into that shelter.  It had happened so quickly that a blink erased any evidence of the vision. 

     Without any hesitation, Onyx turned her feet in the direction of the alley, narrowly avoiding a car that rumbled suddenly past her.  She paused at the entrance of the alley and peered into the shadowed crack between the buildings.  Taking another lick of her cone, she stepped across the invisible threshold.

     After the blazing oppression of the afternoon sun on the street, the alley seemed dark and impenetrable.  Broken boxes and crates were piled up haphazardly against the walls of the buildings and bits of garbage littered the path before her.  The whole alley stank of overcooked refuse thanks to the heat of the afternoon sun.  A stifled sound caught her attention, causing Onyx to shift her gaze to a small clump of cans in the deeper part of the darkness.  There, huddled like a lost child, was what seemed to be a young woman.  She was sobbing hysterically, curled up as tightly as possible between the cans and the stone walls of the buildings.  Her whole body trembled severely against the cans, causing them to clank against each other.  Onyx took a cautious step closer, then halted.

     “Hello?” Onyx called out tentatively.

     Like a cat, the girl whirled around and jumped to her feet.  Her eyes were wild with fear and confusion.  She had assumed a stance of fight-or-flight, crouched low to the ground with arms outstretched in a defense position.  She was breathing heavily, shaking all over like a leaf.  There was nothing on her that could resemble a weapon.  About the closest thing that could be of concern was a simple backpack that seemed mostly empty, yet was clutched fiercely in one hand.

     For her part, Onyx did not even flinch, let alone change position.  She had completely forgotten about her ice cream and was absorbed in observing this girl.  Perhaps girl was not a good description, for at the moment she seemed more like a wild animal than human and was more the worse for wear.  Her hair was a wild tangle of a woody brown, occasionally interrupted with shots of silver-grey that seemed to almost emit its own light.  The hair was too long to be practical, partially hiding her face and draping around her body as she moved.  It could not conceal the terrified green eyes, sunken and blood-shot from lack of sleep, nor the dry and cracked lips that let out gasps of breath with each exhale.  Her skin should have been pale, and still was in some places, but was mostly badly burnt by the sun.  It seemed to be peeling in some places, blistering in others, and just reddening in the remaining.  The remaining patches of untouched skin stood out in stark contrast.  All along her body were cuts, bruises and lacerations that served as a roadmap of her journey.  Her knees were scratched and torn and sand still hung to some of the fresher wounds.  Out of this pitiful scene before her, what struck the most pity in Onyx was the view of the young woman’s feet.  They were still bloody and bleeding, blistered over and scorched raw from the burning sands of the desert.  How the poor thing could still stand was beyond her.

     “I’m Onyx,” Onyx said softly, not once taking her eyes from the girl as she spoke.  At the sound of Onyx’s words, the girl hesitated.  Her eyes darted around the alley as if seeking an answer in that shaded stench.  “Are you hungry?” Onyx tried again, extending the ice cream towards the frightened girl.

     The girl looked at the cone, then at Onyx, then back at the cone.  Slowly, Onyx brought the cone to her lips, took a lick of the ice cream, then extended it out to the girl again.  That seemed to be enough.  The girl leaped forward and snatched the cone from Onyx’s hand, then immediately withdrew a few paces to examine the treat.

     “It’s good,” Onyx assured her.  “Just very cold.  Eat it slowly.”  The girl took a lick and paused, her eyes going wide as the sweetness took over her tongue.  Immediately, she began to devour the frozen treat, taking large bites until the brain-freeze that always comes stopped her.  She reeled backwards, holding the cone far away from her as she put her other hand to her head.

     “I told you to eat slowly,” Onyx smiled.

     The young woman finished off the cone more cautiously, ending by licking the sticky remnants from the tips of her finger.  After she had finished, she turned to face Onyx.  She now stood upright with confidence, her eyes blazing with a perceptive caution as she took in her dress and posture.  The girl was calculating the risk of trusting her, Onyx knew.  The calculation seemed to fly across her dark, emerald eyes.  All at once, the girl stopped and seemed to mentally nod to herself.  Her decision had been made, and with that, a sense of relief filled her posture.

     “I am Caelestis,” she said haltingly, with a voice hoarse from lack of use.  She seemed to pause on the second word, as if uncomfortable with its usage.  Onyx smiled.

     “A pleasure to meet you, Caelestis,” Onyx grinned.  There was a moment of reflection that caught on Onyx as she said the name.  “Caelestis….Cael…Kale?”  Her own eyes lit up at the similarity.

     “Nay…Nay kale.  Caelestis, K-eye-lee-stus” Caelestis said in slight confusion.  She carefully pronounced her name, emphasizing each syllable to make sure that Onyx understood the pronunciation.

     “Oh yeah, Sorry…” Onyx said with a wave of her hand.  “Your name just reminded me of someone I know, that’s all.”  Caelestis frowned, obviously not completely understand what she had said.  Onyx gave another wave of her hand to dismiss the comment and motioned Caelestis towards her.  “It’s not important.  What _is_ important is that we get you some help.  You look terrible!”

     Caelestis took a step forward at her urging, then froze in mid step.  All at once, her eyes rolled back and she began falling forward toward the pavement below her.  Onyx made a wild, mad dash forward, barely able to catch her before her face kissed the stone.  Frantically, Onyx managed to gently lay her on the ground and shift her so that she was facing up rather than in the dirt.  She knelt down beside the girl and felt her forehead.  Her skin was hot to the touch and her breathing was shallow and ragged.  Onyx shifted the mass of beaded and pebble necklaces out of her way and leaned her ear against her chest to check her heart.  It was beating slowly, as if the act of pumping blood was too much for it.  As Onyx was replacing the decorations, her hand came in contact with one necklace that was on its own leather thong.  It was a crystal, darkened and seemingly burned out with a large crack in it.  A dust Crystal, specifically for fire.  Onyx looked at the girl, at her patchy burns and scratches, frowning.  All at once, her eyes went wide.

     “Aura!  No wonder you are only half-burned!”  In a flash, Onyx had pulled out her scroll and fiddled with a few options to bring up the application Kale had had Gauri program for everyone.  She hit the button and a few moments later, a reading came indicating Caelestis’ aura readings and a few other vital signs.  Her aura was almost completely depleted and was still sinking lower and lower by the moment.  Even now, in her current state, her aura was trying to heal and protect her.

     Onyx closed up the application and punched in a speed-dial number.  There was only one person she could think of to call—Stav.  She would nearest to her, probably not even that far from where they had parted.  There was a ring or two before a familiar, surly voice answered.

     “What do you want, now?” Stav demanded on the other line.

     “Stav!  Get here, Quick!  I need you!” Onyx cried into the phone.  She was in a panic, not sure what to do to help the poor girl before her.

     “What in th—“

     “NOW!!!”  Onyx was practically shrieking into the phone.  There was a silent pause.

     “Where are you?” came the reluctant, low reply.  Onyx gave instructions to her location and then hung up.  She turned her attention to the unconscious Caelestis, fear and worry mingled in her thoughts.  She wasn’t a healer.  She didn’t know much about those kinds of things.  All she knew was that this girl was hanging on by a thread and she had no way to help her.  At one level, Onyx knew that the best thing would be to call an ambulance, but she had hesitated on that idea.  The girl had obviously been frightened by the city around her: roving cars that honked angrily in the streets, lights flickering on their own from signs and streetlamps, people angrily shoving their way through the crowds.  For her to suddenly wake up in an actual room with lights and electricity and wires would only add to her stress and cause more problems.  Water would definitely be needed, but with her unconscious like this, Onyx was worried she would choke rather than drink.  What she needed now was someplace safe, a slow introduction to this society, cool and comforting.  That much Onyx knew.  That much she understood, not that it was very hard to deduce since the poor thing was sobbing hysterically earlier after fleeing into the alley.

     It wasn’t long before a form darkened the entrance to the alley.  Stav stood at the entrance of the little crack in the city, staring into the sloven hole that served as sanctuary to both Onyx and her find.  Stav wrinkled her nose at the smell and refused to enter, her amber eyes falling on Onyx and the fallen girl.

     “What is this?” was Stav’s only question.

     “She needs help!” Onyx cried out desperately.  Stav turned her eyes to the girl lying on the ground.  For a long moment, she silently studied the still figure.

     “Of all the idiotic things—why did you call me and not an ambulance?” Stav growled angrily.  She clutched her cane in her hand as if ready to use it as a club upon Onyx’s head.

     “Because she would have freaked out even more!” Onyx snapped irritably.  She gently caressed the collapsed girl’s face.  “We need to get her someplace cool—someplace where she will feel safe.  Please, help me!”

     Stav’s eyes were a narrow slit of frustration as she looked down at the two.  She was about to make a reply when Onyx threw in a final line at her: “It’s what Kale would have wanted.”

     The two stared at each other without words, one like the shadows, the other like the summer sun.  Onyx’s dark eyes glistened with worry and determination.  She would get Stav to help this girl.  Stav returned the gaze with vehemence, an obvious struggle flickering within her soul.  All at once, Stav let out a sigh and nodded, her whole body drooping slightly in defeat.

     “Very well.  There is a park near here,” Stav sighed.  “It has a lot of trees, so will be cool, and is quiet.  We will take her there.”  Onyx was about to make a relieved reply when Stav immediately cut her off.  “After we get here there, I am out.  She is your problem now.  Get her to a hospital or something.  Got it?”

     Onyx gave a nod of her head.  Stav gingerly stepped into the garbage-strewn alley and picked up the girl.  She wrinkled her nose in disgust as she carried her, princess-style, out into the street.  Onyx followed along behind, already turning over in her head the possibilities to help this girl.  Even as she thought of where to take her and how to help her, she was thinking of something more important—Stav’s reaction.  Could she have finally found what she was looking for?

     The park was not very far from the alley and was, thankfully, deserted.  Large trees kept alive with a complex irrigation system towered over their heads, healthy green leaves acting as a shield over the grass and flowers that were planted with care along the small pathways.  Stav laid Caelestis onto a bench with the utmost care, then straightened abruptly.

     “She’s your problem now,” Stav stated matter-of-factly.  She turned and made her way back the way they had come, pausing for a moment.  Onyx lifted an eyebrow, half-expecting Stav to turn around, but was disappointed when she continued without looking back.

     The two of them now alone, Onyx turned her attention to the sleeping patient and put a thoughtful finger to her chin.  She was no healer, obviously, but something needed to be done.  She couldn’t leave the girl, either.  Onyx found herself wishing that Kale was there.  She was always a good healer.  She could have helped.  Angrily, Onyx scolded herself for wishing and told herself to start doing.  Kale had taught her a thing or two for emergencies.  That should be enough.  Onyx decided that her first order of business would be to revive her.  After that, she would try and figure out what to do.

     Onyx knelt down beside Caelestis and took her hand into her own.  Caelestis’ hand was burning hot and limp.  Pushing away her worry, she closed her eyes and centered herself.  Giving someone a small boost of aura was not so difficult.  Most first years could learn it if they cared to, but not many took the time.  It was a valuable healing technique that only a few bothered to learn because it depleted your own supply of aura.  Sometimes just boosting a wounded person’s aura was enough to see them through until a real doctor could get to them.  Onyx hoped that it would be enough for this girl.  She closed her eyes and focused, feeling her own aura like a gentle ocean within her.  She touched it mentally, allowing it to flow through her veins and along the canals in her skin.  Gently, she coaxed it to brush against the weak field around Caelestis, urging it to gently trickle through the cracked layers and into Caelestis’ broken form.  She felt a tug, a pull, and then felt her aura begin to slip in and mingle with Caelestis’ aura.  Onyx allowed the flow to continue for several moments before gently disentangling her aura from Caelestis’ and withdrawing.  She opened her eyes and looked down at her face.

     Caelestis was still unconscious, but her breathing had evened out and followed a more natural rhythm.  The pain that had seemed to stain her face had faded, giving her the look of a peaceful sleeper rather than someone on the threshold of death.  Onyx heaved a sigh of relief when the girl’s eyes fluttered open.

     “Are you okay?” Onyx asked hopefully.  The girl blinked her green eyes, then slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position.  She placed a tentative hand to her forehead, then looked around in confusion at the trees and greenery around her.

     “I is where…?” she whispered uncertainly.

     “It’s a park,” Onyx supplied.  Caelestis turned her eyes to Onyx, the nodded.

     “Park…” she murmured.  Caelestis shifted herself into a full sitting position and looked around with wide, curious eyes.  Onyx watched her in fascination, sitting back on her heels.  All at once, she came to her own decision.

     “I will take you with me,” Onyx smiled.  Caelestis looked at Onyx with questioning eyes.  “There are doctors at the school.  They can help you.  We will walk there and I will introduce you to our culture!” Onyx beamed happily at her own cunning.  This girl was going to be the bridge that saved Gauri and Stav, she just knew it.  She had already seen a flicker of a shadow of the old Stav back in the alley.  She was sure that more contact would bring her team back together.  Both Caelestis and she would benefit, too, so it was a win-win situation.  Onyx stood up and offered her hand to Caelestis.  Caelestis looked to the hand, then to Onyx’s coal-black eyes before taking the proffered hand and being hauled to her feet.

     “Doctors?” Caelestis asked curiously.

     “They can heal you,” Onyx explained.  The word “heal” seemed to have an effect and Caelestis immediately relaxed.  “Can you walk?  It is a little far to get there.”

     “Yea…Yes.” Caelestis nodded with confidence.  Her first couple of steps were a little shaky, but after a moment, she seemed to move more steadily.  Onyx nodded to herself, impressed.  The girl had a strong will and didn’t balk at the unknown.  That was good.  It would make her transition easier. 

     Onyx took up pace beside Caelestis, already beginning a long monologue about the world around them.  She pointed to benches, rocks, trees, birds, and anything that came into view.  On occasions, Caelestis would point to something with an inquiring look and Onyx would take up the question without hesitation.  They walked for a long time in this manner, Onyx speaking and Caelestis absorbing every word.  Here and there, Onyx would stop and purchase a small piece of food or drink and encourage Caelestis to try it.  Being as famished as the poor girl was, she devoured almost everything placed before her.  At times, Caelestis would stop Onyx’s monologue and repeat a word that Onyx had said.  After several attempts, the meaning would seem to sink in and she would repeat the word or phrase several times before allowing Onyx to continue. Caelestis’ eyes were blazing like a firestorm, sucking in everything that Onyx said with a voracious hunger that could not be sated.  She was as determined to learn about the world around her as she was to learn the language it existed in.  While Onyx attempted to keep a slow and even pace, encouraging resting for fear of another collapse, Caelestis pressed forward and tried to increase the pace.  She was anxious to get to their destination, anxious to see everything, and completely ignorant of her own delicate constitution.  At times, Onyx would abruptly sit down and refuse to move, forcing Caelestis to wait for her and rest since she herself did not know the way.  In this manner, they made their way to the academy.

 


	7. Recovery Time

     Caelestis’ eyes fluttered open and then closed again gently. Groaning, she rubbed at her eyes and tried to crack them open again, her head still feeling a little funny from whatever it was the “doctors” had given her.  At first, all she could see was white.  White tiles lining the ceiling of the room.  She vaguely remembered those words from Onyx during their walk while she was describing the inside of various buildings.

     “Finally back with the living, eh?” came a familiar voice on her right.  Caelestis flicked her eyes in that direction to find Onyx sitting beside her, a big grin splitting across her dark face like pearls at night.  The warm greeting made Caelestis smile herself, forcing away the disorientation that had enveloped her earlier.

     “Where am I?” Caelestis asked as she propped herself up on an arm.

     “In the hospital, silly,” Onyx responded.  “That anesthetic really played a number on you, huh?”  Caelestis nodded, rubbing at her temple slightly as she tried to jog her own memory.  She recalled stepping into the hospital with Onyx and then a flurry of activity as several people gathered around them.  One particular man seemed very angry with Onyx and had pulled her aside to talk as the others whisked Caelestis away in what they called a wheelchair.  After that, the person who had spoken to Onyx had approached her and gave her a vague idea of what was going on.  They gave her something that they said would keep her from feeling any pain while they worked on her sunburnt wounds, and then she could recall no more.

     With that last thought, she pulled back the blankets that covered her and found her feet completely bandaged with clean white fabric.

     “That was the worst part,” Onyx explained as they stared at her feet.  “Between the split blisters, lacerated skin, and the sand that was embedded in it, the Doctor was shocked that you didn’t have some kind of infection or gangrene.  Even after I mentioned your aura, he said that you were lucky to be standing with what little aura you had left.”

     “Lucky…” Caelestis whispered.  The word lanced her through the heart.  With a rough jerk of her arm, she flung the blankets back over her feet and allowed herself to flop back onto the pillows behind her.  The movement jarred her slightly and caused her burnt skin to sting, but she didn’t care.  She found that she was tired of being so “lucky”, especially now that she was left with nothing.

     “Caelestis…?” Onyx leaned forward in concern.

     “Why are you helping me?” Caelestis suddenly demanded with a sting she had not intended.  Onyx frowned and sat back in her chair, taken aback by the sudden venom in her voice.

     “Why…because it was the right thing to do,” Onyx replied automatically.

     In that instant, Caelestis knew she was lying, or at least not being completely honest.  She couldn’t quite put her finger on how she knew—perhaps it was the stiffness in her shoulders or the timber of her voice—but she was certain of it.  It angered her more to hear that silent omission, not so much because Onyx was hiding some ulterior motive, but because it seemed like the whole universe was using her for its own amusement.  This was just one more petal on the flower.

     “Oh, hey!  You have a roomy, too!” Onyx suddenly chirped, clapping her hands together as if she had just remembered something important.  “Say ‘hi’, Gauri!”  Onyx turned to look across the small distance between the two beds towards the other patient Caelestis’ hadn’t even noticed.

     Gauri barely turned her head to acknowledge them, her one eye shining in the bright sun from the window.  Caelestis frowned, her anger immediately dampening beneath the sight of that mangled being who uttered not a word.  Her head was bandaged over her right eye firmly, her hair cut so short that it was barely a dark carpet of black across her skull.  Her left arm was bandaged up from the shoulder as well, and her right leg was suspended by some kind of rope.  It, too, was completely bandaged and held in some kind of solid casing.  In short, she was a mess and obviously far worse off than Caelestis was.

     “What happened to her?” Caelestis asked in a soft whisper, all venom gone from her voice.

     “It’s…a long story,” Onyx replied just as softly.  “I don’t think here is a good place to go into it…”  Caelestis merely nodded, understanding the unspoken statement.

     “Sorry about getting angry at you,” Caelestis said suddenly.  She turned her eyes to Onyx again, an invisible plea for forgiveness.

     “Don’t worry about it,” Onyx smiled.  “You’ve been through a lot, I can tell.  We can talk about it later.  Right now, you slept longer than anyone expected and visiting hours are almost over.  You should get some more rest, anyway.  The Doctor said that your aura would recover faster if you ate and slept, and then it could get to work on your wounds.”

     “Okay,” Caelestis replied automatically.  She wasn’t sure what some of that meant, but she understood food and rest.  “Come to think of it… I am kind of hungry.” As if on cue, a loud rumble erupted from her stomach.  Onyx and Caelestis looked at her stomach, then at each before bursting into giggles.

     “I guess that makes it unanimous!  I will send the nurse in with some food.  See you tomorrow, Caelestis!”  Onyx jumped up and made to leave.  “See you, Gauri!” she called cheerfully to the one on the other bed.  Gauri made no reply.  Caelestis watched in confusion at the exchange.  It was obvious that Onyx saw Gauri as a friend, but Gauri seemed to think otherwise.  She barely noticed the dejected sigh that Onyx let hum from her nose before she straightened up with a smile and bounced out of the room.

     Caelestis and Gauri exchange a look from across the small expanse of floor between them.  It was a brief, momentary glance that ended as Gauri moved her gaze to her window.  Caelestis leaned back in her bed and closed her eyes for a moment, centering herself in her mind and trying to piece together everything she was seeing and learning.  It wasn’t easy.  She felt like a mountain had been dropped on her, crushing her with the weight of everything she had discovered in such a short period of time.  It wasn’t just the mystery between Gauri and Onyx, either.  It was everything.  The whole world had become a strange, demonic universe to her.  Caves that people made and lived in, lightning that made things move on their own, and a plethora of otherworldly things that made her wonder if she was going crazy.  And to top it off, she was completely alone while facing this monstrous new life.  She wanted normalcy.  She wanted the soft green woods and the cascading waterfalls of home.  But most of all…she wanted a familiar face.

     “Hello, Ladies!” an energetic voice suddenly boomed from the doorway.  Both Gauri and Caelestis looked towards the door with a start.  A young man pushing a cart before him had entered the room.  He was wearing the blue-gray nurse’s uniform and smiling broadly to both of them, his brown eyes sparkling with their own inner merriment.  Atop his head, two mule-like ears swiveled back and forth as if attempting to pick up on some secret signal or sound.

     “A Faunus,” Caelestis breathed in relief.  She felt a small smile creep up at the corners of her mouth.  For a reason she couldn’t exactly pinpoint, it made her feel better to see a Faunus in the room.  It could have been the simple fact that it bore a resemblance to home, what with the half-Faunus tribe they had frequently bartered with.  She couldn’t recall if she had seen any on the street during their walk as she hadn’t paid any attention to the people around her.

     “I heard you two were a little hungry,” he winked at Caelestis as he spoke, stopping the cart just at the foot of her bed.  “Here is a lovely dish from home—sure to make you feel right as rain again!”  With a practiced ease, he moved a tray over the bed and positioned it just before her.  Once he was satisfied with the arrangement, he placed a tray before her.

     “What is it?” Caelestis asked curiously, poking at the exotic food before her with her finger.

     “Fried vegetables sautéed with herbs and spices and a hint of sauce,” he responded.  “Good for what ails you and delicious to boot!”  He gave her a lopsided grin as she picked up a leaf between her thumb and forefinger.  Cautiously, she brought it closer and sniffed at the foreign food.  The aroma was a soft mixture that reminded her of the valley tribe’s feast when she was younger.  She couldn’t quite describe it as her own people never used such things.  Earthy and warm was probably the best she could do.  She nibbled on the tip of the leaf.  Her eyes widened.

     “This is wonderful!” she cried out in delight.  Immediately, she downed the rest of the leaf and reached for another.  The man stopped her hand in mid-reach and tsked good-naturedly. 

     “I don’t know where you came from, little Lady, but around here, we use these.”  He presented before her a metallic object that had four tines across it.

     “Shiny stone…” Caelestis said in awe.  Only a few warriors of her tribe had metal tips on their spears and arrows, and only one had an actual knife.  She had touched it once as a child out of innocent curiosity and had been reprimanded fiercely for it.  She hadn’t touched the mysterious, rare material since, and now this stranger was presenting it to her like a gift.

     “Go on, take it and eat up,” he said.

     Gingerly, Caelestis took the object reverently in her hand and turned it around and around, examining every inch of it.  It felt cool and smooth against her skin, nothing like the knife she had touched ages ago. 

     Caelestis looked up to ask him how to use this object, but found that he had already wheeled his cart across the room to tend to Gauri.  Undeterred, she turned her attention back to the tool and moved it around in her hands.  She held it in a clenched fist as she would a knife and stabbed the tines down towards the food, spearing a large leaf and some meat. 

     “Are you serious?” Gauri said from across the room.  Caelestis paused mid-bite to look up and found Gauri watching her with an almost mortified expression upon her face.  It was probably the first thing she had said since Caelestis awoke.  Caelestis finished off the bit on her fork while maintaining eye-contact with Gauri.

     “What?” she asked around a mouthful of the food.

     “You really have never seen a fork before?” Gauri asked.  Caelestis was impressed.  She had managed to get two sentences out of her when Onyx hadn’t even gotten one.  She swallowed and sat back a little, setting the fork on the tray before her.

     “So how else do you use these things?”

     With great, exaggerated movements, Gauri picked up the fork in her hand, holding it between her thumb, middle and index fingers, the tines pointing up away from her food.  She swooped the fork in an arc towards the plate, half-scoping and half-stabbing some of the food before continuing the arc up into her mouth.

     “Like that,” she stated simply.

     “Um…actually...Miss Gauri…” the nurse stepped in with a nervous smile.  “The tines should be pointing down, not up…and…”

     Gauri shot him a look that immediately silenced him.  She continued eating, her eyes never leaving Caelestis.  It was not only a challenge, but a statement.  Gauri was labeling her as an incapable imbecile: all because she couldn’t use this thing called a fork.

     Caelestis took the challenge without hesitation, determined to not live her life as useless commodity any longer.  She would prove her worth with whatever tasks they gave her; even it was the simple task of eating.  She picked up the fork and attempted to place it in her hands in the same manner which Gauri had demonstrated.  It felt awkward in her fingers, but she pressed on, her eyes locked on Gauri as firmly as the other watched her.  The nurse had taken a step back and was watching the two of them, a confused look upon his face.

     The fork suddenly clattered to the tray, breaking free of Caelestis’ awkward grip.  With a grunt, she picked up the fork again and repositioned it as she had seen Gauri do.  After she felt it was secure, she returned her eyes to Gauri, who was watching her intensely.  Copying Gauri’s exaggerated movements to mock her, she swooped in towards the food and managed to get a large pile upon the fork.  She smirked and opened her mouth wide, taking in as much of the food as possible.  Several bits crashed down to the plate as she bit into the food.  From across the room, she saw a small twitch at the corner of Gauri’s mouth that was instantly smoothed over.

     “Better,” Gauri stated flatly.  She returned her gaze to the window.  “I can’t stand ignorance.”

     “Ignor…what?”  Caelestis asked around the mouthful of food.  Gauri glanced at her from the corner of her eye, but did not answer.  She had reverted to her silent state once more.

     “And don’t talk with your mouth full,” Gauri added under her breath as an after-thought, not once turning to look at her again.  Caelestis finished off the food quickly, her stomach grumbling happily now that it was finally full.

     “Would you like some more, Miss?” the nurse asked. 

     “Is…that okay?” Caelestis asked in disbelief.

     “But of course!”  And with that, he collected her plates, handed her a piece of square cloth with an admonition to clean her face, and then pushed his cart out of the room.

     “That was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten!”  Caelestis grinned.  “Do you guys always eat like this?”

     Gauri’s response was silence.  Caelestis shrugged, and used the napkin to carefully wipe the sauce from her lips.  It still stung a little to touch the burned parts of her skin, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been when she had first arrived.  Between a full stomach, warmth, and a feeling of security she had never had before, Caelestis began to feel something akin to peace.  She waited in anticipation for the next plate of food—two meals at once!—her mind turning over the positive in a vain attempt to ignore the darkness lurking at the back of her mind.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     “Hey, Onyx!!  Over here!” Echo called out from the cafeteria table.  Onyx balanced her tray in one hand and waved the other to let her know that she had heard her, and then moved through the crowded room towards the seat.

     “Where are the others?” Onyx asked as she sat down.

     “Oh, you know how they are.  Sumi despises the cafeteria and Namid prefer to eat and run.”  Echo smiled sweetly as she nibbled on her bread and sipped at her drink.

     “Don’t you ever get lonely at lunch?” Onyx inquired as she brought her sandwich to her lips.

     “Not when I have at least you to talk to,” Echo grinned.  Her pale blue hair seemed to shimmer as much under indoor lights as it did in the sun.  “Rumor has it that you have managed to bring a little visitor onto the campus.  Is this true?”

     “Yup!  She’ll be cute once we get her cleaned up, too,” Onyx chirped cheerfully.

     “I also heard tell that the headmistress will be speaking with on the matter shortly,” Echo added nonchalantly before taking a sip of her drink.  Onyx chewed her food thoughtfully.

     “Figures,” she finally said.

     “I would love to meet this little friend of yours, if the time is appropriate,” Echo said after a moment’s silence. 

     “I’ll bring her around after they release her,” Onyx nodded.  “She’s in with Gauri, so it might not be a good idea to see her now.”  Echo nodded knowingly.  The two began to drift on to other topics about the lessons in class, homework, and the upcoming Vytal festival.  All the while, Onyx was considering Echo’s words.  It had been a friendly heads up to let her know that her secret wasn’t so secret.  She had originally hoped to sneak Caelestis onto the campus without many people noticing, but with the hospital on the second tier, it had proved to be impossible.  Echo had just let Onyx know the headmistress was not angry but that a petition for Caelestis’ continued stay would be necessary.  If the headmistress had been angry, Echo would have used the words “demanding an audience with you” rather than speaking.  At least now Onyx could prepare for the meeting.

 


	8. Learning About Life

     Caelestis fidgeted restlessly on the bed.  The hospital gown they had given her was itchy and uncomfortable against her still-tender skin and her face was still flushed from the bath they had introduced her to.  It had been quite an adventure.  Early in the morning, while Onyx was paying a visit before classes, the elder female nurse had come in.  She had examined Caelestis as normal, checked her feet, and then declared that they were healed enough to walk on a little.  Then, with an air of relief, she had announced that Caelestis was going to take a bath.

     Onyx had grinned and insisted on coming along “to help” as she had said.  The nurse allowed it.  Even Gauri had glanced over in curiosity, her posture and face barely concealing her own desire to come.  It was those reactions that had tipped her off that she was going to have another cultural experience, and their seeming delight made her nervous.  She certainly hadn’t disappointed them.  Her confused expression at the tub and her shock at the running water that came out with just a twist of a knob had seemed extremely entertaining to Onyx.  Caelestis wasn’t really upset about them finding amusement in her ignorance, but she really wished Onyx hadn’t laughed so hard.  The episode had taken longer than it probably should have, and her skin still felt raw from the experience, but she was finally clean and everyone seemed to be very happy about that.

     But now that the adventures of the morning were over, she had nothing left to occupy her time.  She looked at everything in the room, memorizing it, quizzing herself on its name, and then found that she no longer needed to practice on those objects anymore.  She had attempted many times to start a conversation with Gauri, but Gauri had remained as silent as stone.  It was probably the most bored that she had ever been.

     There had been plenty of times when her tribe had been holed up in a cave or other make-shift shelter during a storm with hours of free-time, but she had had plenty of things to do then.  Despite her inabilities with the arrows, she could fletch and mend them quiet well.  She wasn’t nearly the cook that Grana was, but everyone was more than happy to second her if Grana was busy with something else.  The thought of Grana made her wonder what the equivalent word would be in this new language she was learning.  Based on her recent experience, she felt it would be a word that sounded similar.  In any case, she had always had something to do and could move around while they waited the storm out.  Games, stories, preparations for continuing their journey---she was always busy, even if she had been useless.

     The thoughts tumbled around in her head in no particular fashion.  The more she thought about home and her life before, the more depressed she felt.  She recalled the things they used to do or talk about, and then her train of thought would shift to the present and wonder about how it would be described in this new tongue.  It was a torrent of emotions and thoughts that seemed to go nowhere, with no rhyme or reason.  She wanted something to do to distract her, and nothing was forthcoming.  Even though she could walk some, the nurse had expressly forbidden her to go about without a nurse on hand.  Just in case.

    For the umpteenth time, Caelestis looked around the room, trying to find something entertaining.  To her right was the cabinet where they had put her bag and necklaces.  They had refused to return her grass and leather wrap for reasons she didn’t understand.  The best she could figure is that it didn’t fit in with their cultural dress code or something—every tribe had one, and it seemed that the size of the tribe didn’t matter.  The cabinet itself was large with several doors that opened to little compartments. In the center, on a level with her eye, was a large, square black thing.  She had no idea what it was and it was a little nerve-racking to look at it.  The front was a dark grayish color, but seemed to shine like the glass of a window.  Whatever it was, she didn’t like it and didn’t understand why it was there.  They hadn’t hooked her up to it like the IV drip or another machine to keep tabs on her pulse.

     Beside the cabinet, tucked between it and the window was the folding tray used to hold her meals.  Beside that was a semi-comfortable chair for visitors.  To her left was the privacy curtain that she could close if she didn’t want anyone to look at her.  That ended her visual trip of her surroundings.  Gauri’s side of the room was a mirror image of her own as were the other empty beds leading back to the door.

     Caelestis sighed and leaned back in her bed.  She stared up at the tiled ceiling for a moment or two, letting the thoughts cross her mind once again before sitting up straight.  She pulled the covers off her feet and scowled at them in frustration.  Turning her eyes once again to Gauri, she contemplated another attempt in conversation with her.  She immediately dismissed it as previous attempts had failed.  On some levels, she knew that Gauri was curious about her and that that was really the only reason she had been so talkative before.  Now that the novelty had mostly worn off, Caelestis was placed at the level of everyone else.  In a way, she found that comforting because it meant that she was accepted in a weird way.  In another way, she was just baffled as to why she was behaving in such a manner. 

     _Of all things, she should be happy that she is alive_ , Caelestis thought to herself.  No Grimm were crashing through the walls to devour her, despite her obvious negative attitude.  It was a weird thought: emotions didn’t bring immediate death bearing down upon you.  It was like a paradise brought down from the Twilight, an impossible dream.  You could be angry or cry with all devouring sadness---and live!  It occurred to Caelestis that living the life of an invalid, or whatever they called them in this culture, might not be the blessing it seemed.  She wasn’t sure, though, as anyone who had been as damaged as Gauri was usually didn’t live long.  There had been several times where the Elder himself had performed the ceremony on the wounded, ending their life with the highest of honor and esteem.  No burdens had been accepted among her people.  If you couldn’t run from the Grimm, you were left behind because no one was willing to give up their own life for you. No one would carry you if a Grimm attacked the people; it was suicide to do otherwise.

     Just when Caelestis was certain she wouldn’t be able to stand another moment, a familiar, friendly voice boomed from the doorway.

     “Hellloooo Ladies!” the male nurse from before had arrived with his cart of food and drink, a smile ever present upon his face.  Caelestis was ashamed that she had not asked for his name yet and uncertain as to why he hadn’t provided it.  Gauri obviously knew him, but she never spoke so that was no help.

     He pushed the cart over to Caelestis, his infectious smile causing her own mouth to quirk into a one.

     “I heard you had quite an adventure, Miss,” he said in a conversational tone.

     “That is a good way to say it,” Caelestis responded with a shrug.

     “Well, it seems it went well,” he continued.  “You came back smelling like a rose and shining like the sun.”  Caelestis blushed involuntarily, gathering that in a way, he was giving her a big compliment.  It was a weird way of saying it and had earned a snort of a short laugh from the other side of the room, but it was the first kind thing she had heard in a while.

     “Thancian,” Caelestis said automatically.  The sudden look of confusion on his face told her that words of appreciation were different between the languages.  Caelestis ran through the mental list of words she had picked up so far and could not find one that might be close.

     “She said thanks,” Gauri suddenly supplied from the other side.  Both the nurse and Caelestis looked at Gauri in surprise.

     “How…?” he began.

     “You paid an ignorant girl a corny compliment,” Gauri explained impatiently.  She turned back to her window.  “What other response would you expect?”

     He turned back to Caelestis, his own face a little red from embarrassment.  Caelestis still wasn’t sure what ignorant meant nor any of the other words.  After a moment of thought, she decided that compliment must mean praise.  It was the only word she could think of that she might be used in this situation to describe his actions moments ago.

     “Anyhoo…how are you doing, Miss?” he asked after recovering some of his pride.

     “I would like a chore,” Caelestis replied.  He blinked at her a moment, then broke into one of his famous grins.

     “That bored, huh?  Well, I got just the thing!”  He pushed the cart out of his way and walked over to the cabinet in quick, large strides.  Next to the black box, he withdrew a small, rectangular object and handed it to her.  Caelestis took the object in her hands slowly; her eyes flicking between it and the black box it had been resting by.  She hadn’t even it seen it tucked away beside the thing.

     “What’s this?” she asked skeptically.  It had numerous raised surfaces of varying color: red, green, yellow, blue, and gray were the most dominate.  There were many symbols and markings on it as well.  It felt heavy in her hands.

     “Your ticket to entertainment,” he winked at her.  Despite him constantly using words that made little sense to her (ticket? entertainment?) she managed to gather that it was meant to give her something to do.  Caelestis raised a skeptical eyebrow, turning the object over in her hand.  She brought it to her ear and shook it roughly, wondering if it would produce sound.  It was silent.

     “How?” she asked.

     The nurse took the rectangle and adjusted it so that it was aimed at the block box.  Caelestis frowned, already growing tense at the thought of interacting with that silent spectator.

     “Push the red button at the top,” he instructed.

     Caelestis looked at him for a moment, then at the box, then at the rectangle.  She looked back at the box again, her whole body growing tense with anxiety.  She told herself over and over again that he was a healer so he wouldn’t do anything that would hurt her, but the truth was she was beginning to doubt that.  There were plenty of warriors that healed their enemies before sacrificing them to their gods.  What if this strange black thing was used for those kinds of purposes?

     It sat there in its little hole, a giant eye peering at her without seeing, waiting for her to decide.  Taking a deep breath, she pressed the button.

     All at once, the box exploded with sound and color.  Caelestis let out an ear-splitting shriek of surprise, her arm automatically pulling back and flinging the rectangle at the offending object with surprising accuracy.  In the same motion, Caelestis was scrambling backwards on the bed, forgetful of the drop behind her and completely consumed by panic.

     “People is…people is….there...in…” she lost her words in a fit of powerful, rib-cracking coughs that erupted from her in the course of her panic.  Her breath came in short, ragged gasps between each racking cough and her panic words.  All she could see was people inside this small box, moving and talking, oblivious to the room they were in.  Was this how they banished people?  Using magic to spirit them away into these black boxes for “entertainment”? 

     Caelestis continued jabbering and coughing, scooting closer and closer to the edge of the bed.  At the last moment, the nurse shot out his hand and caught her arm, preventing her from moving back any further.

     “Hey!  Calm down!  Relax!”  He said over and over again, trying to break through her barrier of noise.

     “Way to go, genius,” Gauri chided.  He didn’t even glance at her, but continued talking to Caelestis in calming, low tones and trying to reason with her.

     “Listen…listen to me…” he pleaded.  Three other nurses had burst into the room at a dead run.  The eldest nurse whom had treated Caelestis to the bath looked at him, the TV, and Caelestis’ trembling form.  In half a moment, she began shouting orders to the other nurses that had arrived with her.  They scattered like ants to carry out her orders.

     With the practiced move of authority, the old nurse came up to the two of them and pushed the button to turn off the television.  She sat down on the bed, forcing the male nurse aside and took Caelestis’ hands in her own.  With a wrinkled hand, she lifted Caelestis’ chin until their eyes met and waited.

     Caelestis locked eyes with her, her own green pleading with the aged hazel eyes of the healer before her.  Her world was getting hazy as the coughing stole her breath and made it difficult to focus.

     “Listen to me, Child,” she said in calm, even voice.  “Copy what I do.  Breath in.”  The old nurse took a slow, long breath in.  Caelestis attempted to copy her, the coughing cutting her short.  The nurse let out the breath in a slow hiss between her lips.  Caelestis tried again, making her breath slower, and let the breath out as she saw the nurse do.  They did this several times until one of the other nurses had returned carrying a large metal canister.  Already, the coughing was beginning to calm down a little as Caelestis focused on trying to match her breath to the old nurse.

     Once the canister was placed beside them, the old woman took the face mask and put it up to Caelestis’ nose.  “Breath slowly, just as you’ve been doing,” she said.  Caelestis obeyed.  As the coughing died down and her awareness sharpened, she realized that tears were flowing freely down her cheeks.  Her whole body felt tight, especially around her chest, and her head was now throbbing viciously.  Slowly, the nurse pushed her back against the pillow, gently murmuring encouraging words to her.  Another nurse had placed something on her finger and was occasionally giving off words that didn’t make much sense to Caelestis.  Once the coughing had stopped and the mask had been removed, the old woman placed something around Caelestis’ arm and hit a button.  The thing hummed to life and began to expand, clamping down upon her arm with ever-increasing pressure.  Caelestis watched it numbly, too exhausted from the attack to jump up in surprise or fear, and the constant murmur from the old nurse seemed almost hypnotic and relaxing.

     Once everything was under control, the older nurse turned to the male nurse, her eyes narrowed angrily.

     “And just what were you thinking?” she demanded.  The anger in her voice was like thunder, though she not once yelled or spoke loudly.  He shriveled under her glare.

     “She…she was bored so I thought she might enjoy a TV show,” he explained.

     “Did you not read the report the Doctor collected from Onyx?” she snapped.  “This girl has no knowledge of technology!  You are lucky she didn’t die of asphyxiation or worse!  Don, if you want to advance in this internship, you have to pay attention to what you are doing!”

     “I…I did read the report, Madame,” Don said sheepishly.  His whole demeanor had shriveled into a meek boy being scolded by his mother.  “She said she had talked her through all sorts of things and showed her the street.  I figured there were display windows with TVs that she would have seen…”  The old nurse glared at him for a moment.

     “In the future, when introducing such a case to anything that might be new,” she said through gritted teeth.  “Walk them through it slowly and explain to them what it is that is going on!  Do you understand me?”

     Don nodded, his gaze collapsed to the floor and hands clasped before him.  She stood another moment, staring him down and seething with rage so powerful that Caelestis could swear she saw it emanating from her skin.  Once the old nurse was certain her point was understood, she turned and stormed out of the room with the others in tow.  Don turned to Caelestis, still completely shrunken and ashamed, unable to raise his eyes to her as he spoke in a low voice.

     “I’m so sorry, Miss,” he said softly.  “I meant no harm, really I didn’t.”

     Caelestis was watching Don for a long moment.  Seeing him in this manner was disturbing to her.  It didn’t suit him at all.  She was also beginning to feel foolish.  No one had reacted at all to this thing they called a TV.  It was as if it were a bed or a plate and no more than that.  Slowly, she reached out a hand to Don, catching the sleeve of his uniform and giving it a gentle tug.  His eyes glanced at her fingers but refused to meet her own.

     “We make mistakes,” Caelestis managed to say.  Her voice was equally soft, but more because of the attack she had just come out of than emotion.  “I was surprised.  Maybe later I will try this…TV…again.  Please.  Do not feel bad.”

     Finally, he lifted his eyes to meet hers.  “But…”

     “Nay,” Caelestis shook her head.  “No.  No but.  It is okay.”  She gathered up her energy to force a weak smile onto her exhausted face.  He returned the smile meekly, as if uncertain of how else to react.

     “I promise I won’t be so careless in the future, Miss,” Don said, his confidence and buoyancy returning.  Caelestis nodded.  The two shared a moment of understanding silence, and then the moment was gone.

     “Can I eat later,” Caelestis asked to fill the void.  She was so drained of energy that even the thought of eating was tiring.  She just wanted to rest a bit and recharge.

     “Sure,” he gave a half smile.  “I will keep it warm for you, Miss.”

     Don took his cart and wheeled it over to take of Gauri, who had watched the whole event without anyone noticing her.  She, too, passed on her meal, her eyes never once leaving Caelestis.

     Caelestis let out a sigh, ignoring the stare and relaxing back into the pillow as much as she could.  Sleep would not come to her, and she would not welcome it even if it did.  Instead, she opted to just allow the emptiness of the aftermath fill her and lull her into a kind of nostalgic day dream.


	9. Lily and the Lion

     Tarian stood at military ease near the door, his legs spread shoulders-width apart and his hands clasped loosely behind his back.  The rim of the fedora he wore shielded his eyes from view, obscuring any thoughts that might have crossed across those glassy orbs.  He kept his face pointed forward, looking neither left nor right.  On the other side of the office, he could hear Lily pacing back and forth, the click of her heels on the metal floor echoing in the quiet room.  The abandoned warehouse they had taken over was a sturdy, well concealed building that was built half into the ground, every room made of steel: walls, floors and ceiling.  Her heels clicked loudly, bouncing off the walls and ceiling, a slight vibrato accompanying them.  At first, the sound had put his teeth on edge, but he had eventually grown used to her habitual pacing.  As she paced, he kept his focus on the empty space before him, acting more like a stone statue than a silent sentinel.

     Today, the clicks were slower and traveled farther than the previous day, a sure sign that she was finally calming down.  He had learned over the years that it was her habit: whenever she was angry or stressed, she would pace.  The pacing would start out in short, quick strides that covered a small distance and were sometimes accompanied with a grinding turn of the heels.  As she was closer to a solution of her problem, or just finally at the end of her tantrum, the strides would lengthen and slow down in pace.  It was these final moments that Tarian had anxiously been waiting for over the course of the last few days.  While she paced, he stood and waited, counting the steps and making the appropriate responses when she occasionally burst into dialogue.  The source of her frustration had been the loss of the girl, a fact that Tarian could not completely accept.  The girl was no one as far as he was concerned, and all of this moping and moaning was wasting valuable time.

     Tarian took a tentative whiff of the air, timing it so that the turn of the heel camouflaged the sound.  Floral perfume.  That was a good sign.  Yesterday she had worn a more chemical-based smell that burned his nose.  The change meant that she was almost through being a drama queen.

     All at once, the pacing stopped and silence filled the room.  Tarian instinctively stiffened, ready for whatever it was she would say.

     “Of all the people she had to be snagged by,” Lily said through clenched teeth.  “It had to be someone from the damn academy!”  Tarian remained mute.  She had said this several times already and would not want a response at this point.  There was a long moment of silence.

     “May I ask a question, Ma’am?” Tarian asked suddenly.  He did not look toward Lily, but the sound of her tail swishing back and forth had suddenly stopped.  It was not normal for him to ask questions during one of her little tirades.

     “What is it, Tarian?” she asked in a soft and silky, too-calm voice.  Anyone else would have been intimidated by that voice.  Tarian, however, was unfazed.

     “Why are you so obsessed over this girl?”  It was true that he had asked that question earlier, but the timing had been wrong.  He had asked it at a time that she would not answer, and he knew it.  When asking about her motivation, the best times were when she was finished with it or when things didn’t go as planned.  The first was because she was proud and wanted to brag.  The second was because she would want a solution immediately to fulfill her desires, and after such failures she was more willing to seek assistance.

     “I suppose I should tell you,” Lily gave a sigh.  Tarian heard the sound of a chair being pulled out and then the sound of Lily taking her seat.  He remained as he was, looking forward and relaxed, facing the empty space.  “Have a seat, Tarian.  I feel like I am with a jailor.”

     Tarian gave a small nod of his head.  He took his customary seat on the other side of her desk, his back straight and hands resting lightly on his knees.  He wasn’t yet willing to drop his polite demeanor; at least, not until he was certain that she was finished.  Patiently he waited for her to speak.

     “According to the records, the girl came from the continent just north of us,” Lily informed him.  He merely nodded.  “Not only is she out-kingdom, but she is also from outside of civilization.  Of course, we can only pinpoint where the boat departed from, but it is unlikely that she was far from her original territory at the time of leaving.”

     “Why does this make her so important,” Tarian interrupted.  He cared little for reports that had no bearing on the situation and he felt this explanation superfluous.  Tarian stiffened when he heard a slight growl from Lily’s throat.  He made a sign of apology and asked her to continue.

     “Because,” Lily went on impatiently.  “If this report is accurate, that means that her territory is near or along a path leading to the where the artifact had been excavated.”  Tarian was grateful that Lily could not see the astonishment flash across his eyes.  He didn’t need to hear the rest, but he didn’t stop her from speaking.  “As you know, the artifact we are after is in a cryogenic state.  It is inert but it can be activated.  There is a very good chance that she may have the answer to activating that artifact.”  Tarian gave a small, curt nod of understanding before voicing his own doubts.

     “Just because she is from around or near the excavation site doesn’t mean that she knows anything about it,” Tarian said.

     “That is true,” Lily conceded.  “But at this point, we have a better chance than all those scientists at the academy.  Their reports had come to an inconclusive end.  Despite all their technology and brains, they couldn’t figure out how to get the thing active.  If this girl has any knowledge or connection, we might be able to get it working with little hassle.”

     “And if not?” Tarian inquired.

     “Well then,” the chair creaked as Lily leaned back into it.  “She is still a Faunus, which means that her services would be more than welcome in the ranks.  She can join us, or join the worms in the ground.”  Her voice suddenly dropped low and became vicious.  Tarian was silent.  He had always felt that Lily was a little too ready to pull the trigger, but he had said little about it.  Lily didn’t seem to care who was on the other end of the gun.  It was her way and she had her reasons that he could never successfully argue against.  All he could do was carry out orders and try to make it so that not many innocent people died. 

     “Would you like me to extract her from the campus?” Tarian asked.

     “No,” Lily let out a breath with the word.  “It would not be wise.  We need to keep a low profile until the operation is carried out.  Not only that, but we don’t want her to distrust us.  It will make her uncooperative.  We want to earn her trust, like white knights coming in to rescue the damsel from the dragon.  An opportunity will present itself, of that I have no doubt.  We will worry about her later.”

     “Speaking of the operation…” Tarian paused, wanting to change the subject but uncertain that it was the appropriate time to do so.

     “Go on.”

     “We found the storm you were referring to.  It is very weak and the course is sporadic.  Are you sure that it will be what we need?”

     Lily gave a smile that was so enigmatic, it could be felt radiating through the very air.  It was a sharp, smug smile with an underlying chuckle that showed her amusement at his concern.

     “Squall himself confirmed it,” she said in a low tone.

     “The old lion?” Tarian couldn’t help but be impressed.  Squall was never wrong about his predictions on the weather.  It was part of his semblance.

     “Yes.  If you are unsure, you can talk to him yourself.”  Lily rose to her feet, the click of her heels taking her to the door of her office. 

     “If Squall says that it is so, it is so,” Tarian said with finality.  He rose as well.

     The two parted outside the door, Lily turning to the left and Tarian to the right. His mind was busy analyzing the details of the information he had received from their talk.  If the girl was truly connected to the artifact, then that meant that they wouldn’t have to do too many illegal things to bring the artifact online.  That suited him.  He decided that he would occasionally survey the campus for signs of the girl and then see about extracting her from the premises at a convenient time.  He had to agree with Lily about earning her trust, so he would have to take care with getting her away from the school.  There were a couple of spies planted in the student body that he might be able to charge with creating an unwelcome experience, something to drive her from the campus.  Tarian realized that he might have some difficult describing her to him, especially if they changed any of her features.  Her aura had been practically empty when he had seen her, meaning that they would have taken her in to some kind of infirmary to replenish her and see to any injuries.  It was highly unlikely that they would allow her to keep her tribal clothing.  While he could describe her scent and her aura to a T, it would be useless to the agents.  They didn’t see the world as he did.  Getting an image of the girl would be easier, but not from Lily.  He didn’t want to tip her off to what he was planning.  If things went well, it would be a pleasant surprise that she would be thrilled with.  If things went badly, he could sweep it under the rug easily enough.

     Tarian paused at an intersection and looked down one of the tunnel-like halls.  It led up to the roof where Squall was constantly sitting, staring up at the sky and “listening to the wind” as he put it.  After a moment’s thought, he decided to go and visit the old man.

     Access to the roof was prohibited for most members.  Only Tarian, Lily, and a few others were allowed up there for air travel or repairs.  Squall was the exception.  In his old age, his fighting skills had deteriorated.  The old lion had found a way to be useful by divining the weather patterns with his semblance, expanding its usage outside of fighting.  It had proven extremely useful for operations like the ones they were planning.

     The old man was sitting in his usual spot near the edge of the roof, leaning against a cluster of rocks.  It was a northern part of the building that met with a rock wall which plunged down hundreds of feet to the sandy bottom.  The wind was warm and strong on the hot roof, blowing in sand from miles away.  Squall was sitting with his back to the door, watching the sky.  His hair was mostly gray with streaks of auburn still clinging desperately, as if unwilling to relinquish their hold to age.  His beard was a long, wiry carpet that hung over his chest, his mustache braided down into the beard.  A life-time of living in the desert had given him tough, leathery mahogany skin.  The robes he wore gave him and old-world priest feel, the thick fabric draping his body and occasionally dancing in the wind.

     Tarian took a seat next to the old man and stared out at the sky with him for several minutes in a slight meditation.  The world was laid out before them, the sands of the desert seeming to go on eternally beyond the horizon.  The solid rock wall behind them formed a shield, stopping the wind from moving forward and moving it back against them.  It was the only place in the hideout that was almost peaceful, almost pure.  Tarian could understand why Squall preferred this location to his room.

     “Have you come to ask about the storm,” Squall asked in a low, gravelly voice.

     “That is one thing,” Tarian replied.  Instantly, Tarian’s speech pattern had shifted to accommodate the old man’s style, becoming extremely formal.  The two continued to look out at the expanse before them.  “When is it coming?”

     “The storm is still a baby now, screaming at its mother,” the old man replied in his thick accent.  “It will grow and come within a week.  The moon will be waning.” 

     “The darkness will serve us,” Tarian said.

     “The darkness will betray you,” Squall shot back.

     “The darkness has always been my friend,” Tarian countered.  “If the moon wanes and the storm is strong, there will be less engagement of the enemy.”

     “Always trying to lessen the sins of your superiors,” Squall grumbled.  “Don’t think she doesn’t know, boy.  She knows.  She finds it amusing.”

     “I know,” Tarian said softly.  “But I still believe in our cause, even if we have strayed from the path.”

     The two sat quietly, thoughts passing between them without words.  It was Squall who finally broke the silence.  “And the other thing?”

     “I owe you much, Old Lion,” Tarian began.

     “You owe me nothing, Cub,” Squall said.

     “Even so, I must ask another favor of you.  A young woman will be joining us eventually—“

     “And you want me to play grandpa to her.”

     Tarian blinked in surprise.  “How did you know?”

     “I’m old, not deaf.  The rumors have been flying around the place ever since the two of you returned from your shopping trip.  Most seem to think it is just another short-lived hobby of our leader, but I know better than that, and you just confirmed my suspicions.”

     “You know too much, old man,” Tarian murmured.  “It’s just as well that you also keep a good head on your shoulders.”

     “Aye, and I plan to keep it there.”  The old man gave a small smile, lifting up the whiskers around his face as his skin crinkled.  It was a heart-warming sight that Tarian never saw.  He had risen to his feet, his face still turned out towards the desert.

     “I owe you much,” he repeated with finality.  “Anything you need, you just ask.  I will get it for you or see it done.”  Tarian turned and started walking back towards the door to the warehouse.

     “You are far too serious for one so young,” Squall said softly into the wind.  Tarian paused and gave a small smile.  Perhaps the old man had known that he would hear him.  Lifting a hand in farewell, he continued on towards the door and back into the hideout below.


	10. Confrontation

     Onyx was walking at a fast clip through the third tier courtyard, her mind turning over the many possible scenarios for the meeting to come.  The third tier led up to the main office of the headmistress, which had an almost god’s eye view of the city below and the desert beyond.  There were occasional benches and a fountain in the center to allow for some rest and fun between classes, but only seniors had classes up this high.  The school was cut in to the protective cliff wall in a gradation, allowing the upward walk to be hardly noticeable if you went the easy route.  Some students preferred the inner stairways because it was cooler, but it took longer and was more tiring.  Onyx herself had opted for the outside walkways because she had wanted to get this meeting over with as quickly as possible and return to the infirmary wing on the second tier.

     As she was walking, her eyes drifted around the courtyard, barely seeing the exotic plants that were kept lush and green through irrigation.  It was a luxury that only the well-off in Vacuo could enjoy because of the expenses.  Even the academy itself only had two or three of these kinds of gardens, strategically placed at key outlooks to allow for the best viewing.  It was a luxury that few students enjoyed, their school work and training taking over most of their time.  Onyx herself had spent most of her life on or near the sands and found the view both breathtaking and boring at the same time. 

     It was during this survey of the courtyard and the desert behind her that her eyes fell upon a familiar cluster of people.  In the center was Stav, her golden hair twitching slightly in the gentle breeze, her face contorted in a blood-thirsty rage.  Surrounding Stav were four young men, each one returning her glare with contempt and icy loathing.  Team WITE had found their favorite target.

     Onyx didn’t even wait to see what was happening; it was a scenario that had played out many times before.  Just as Stav was raising her cane and the leader of team WITE was drawing his over-sized great sword, Onyx sprung into action.  A flick of the wrist initiated the steady hum of the dial as her weapon activated.  A soft click was barely audible to indicate that it was ready just as she landed between them.  In that moment, a double blade had extended from her bracers as she raised her arm, catching Stav’s cane in the fork.  Her other arm sported a small shield that held his sword at bay.  With an enraged cry, she forced the two of them back, pushing with all her might until they stumbled away from each other.

     “WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!?” Onyx screamed at Weylin, the leader of the team.  “You have been on our case since the first year!  What did we ever do to you?  Why can’t you just leave us alone!!?”  The fight-or-flight adrenaline was pumping through her veins, causing her voice to crack as it rose in volume, her own anger and frustration finding a small outlet against a reasonable opponent.  Team WITE was the top team in the school, almost always the winner in any challenge.  They were the smartest, the brightest, and probably the richest—if rumors could be believed.

     Weylin straightened, his rust-colored hair accentuating his grey eyes.  “My problem,” he snarled.  “Is a team of freaks that seems to taint my vision everywhere I go.”  He resheathed his sword with practiced ease and crossed his arms over his chest, a sneer of disgust on his face.

     “What’s that supposed to mean!?” Onyx demanded, hands on hips.

     “Well, just look at you,” Weylin glowered.  “You are part of an illegal underground organization that thumbs its nose at society.  One of your team is a mangled puppet wasting our medical resources, and I don’t even know where to begin with THAT thing—“and he stabbed a finger in the direction of Stav, who was reddening with her own rage.  “And THEN there was that leader of yours, Ka—“

     But he never got a chance to finish that sentence.  In the space of a few words, Onyx had spun on her heels, using the momentum and her own weight to jam her elbow into Weylin’s soft middle.  The air rushed from his lungs in a loud _oof_ as he fell backwards onto the ground.  His eyes bulged in surprise as he desperately attempted to regain his breathing.

     “Don’t you _ever_ even think of uttering her name, Pig,” Onyx bellowed.  The rest of his team had immediately gathered around him to help him, but Onyx had already turned her back on them and began stalking away.

     “The headmistress will hear of this!” one his team cried after her.  She whirled around, her hands clenched into tight fists and her eyes searching for the speaker.

     “You’re damn right she will,” Onyx hissed.  “I am on my way there right now.”  The startled look on their faces had told her everything she needed to know.  They thought that they could get there first and spin a story placing Onyx and Stav as the provokers.  She didn’t understand how they could look so terrified, though.  Weylin’s father was a primary supporter of the school.  Nothing would happen to him or his team.

     Onyx turned on her heels and marched away, her anger smoldering like the last embers of a fire.  She knew there was another reason for their aggressiveness towards her team, but she could never pinpoint what it was.  At first she thought it was because her team had occasionally beaten them—something unheard of before they had come to the school.  They had a lot of pride, of that she was sure.  It wasn’t until later that she had realized that this was not necessarily the case.  Their bullying hadn’t begun when they had occasionally won a match, and it seemed that their hatred was more focused on Stav than anyone else.  Prior to Kale’s death, Stav had mostly ignored them.  Now she took the bait willingly, as if she wanted to be expelled.  She couldn’t recall them ever really targeting Gauri or herself unless they came to Stav’s defense.  She vaguely recalled an attempt on Kale and then Kale immediately receiving an apology letter the next day.  She had never discovered what had prompted the apology, but team WITE had always left the room if Kale had entered.  So maybe it was because Stav reacted to them.

     Onyx pushed the train of thought aside.  There were more important things for her to worry about at this moment, and pathetic bullies were not one of them.  She was so lost in thought that it took her a moment before she heard the heavy clunk of thickly heeled shoes approaching from behind.  Onyx turned to find Stav rushing towards her, her rage so palpable that her usually flaxen face almost purple.

     “Look, I know you don’t like—“ Onyx began.

     “You stupid, ignorant, pathetic, inexcusable piece of trash!!” Stav spat out.  Onyx took a step back in surprise at the venom.

     “Wh—what?  What did I do?  I just wanted to help—“

     “Not that, you idiot!  You brought that washed-up rat to the academy!  Like some kind of stray dog!!!  How could you be so pathetically stupid!!?”  Stav’s golden amber eyes were wide, the words spewing from her mouth in an uncontrolled torrent.

     “She…she needed help…” Onyx stuttered.

     “Don’t try to fool me—and don’t be dumb, either,” Stav snapped.  “I know what you are trying.  All you care about is using that girl for your own ends.  You think that if you bring home a stray puppy, everyone will oooh and ahhh and everything will go back to the way it was before.  Well, it won’t.  There is no going back.  We are done.  Our team is dead.  Gauri is dead.  I might as well be.  We will be disbanded, you will return to your precious little caravan and Gauri will be shipped off to god-knows-where with her parents.”

     “And you…?” Onyx whispered softly.

     “My fate is no concern of yours,” Stav growled.  “Give it up.  Stop dragging others into the grave.  It is over.  I don’t want to see that disgusting corpse.  Don’t bring her to our room.  Don’t bring her to classes---just get rid of her!” 

     “We gave her a bath,” Onyx said feebly.  “She smells much nicer now.  And she could really use a new wardrobe---you…you could dress her up like you always enjoyed doing!  Anything you want!”

     “Don’t even try,” Stav sneered.  “I suppose you expect me to foot the bill, too.  Pay for beautifying a pile of dung.  Well, the answer is no.  No, no, no, no, no, NO.  You’re going to have to wake up some day, Onyx.  It’s over for us.”

     And with the last of her anger vented, Stav stalked away.  It wasn’t the stampeding exit that you expected from such a hate-filled speech.  It had more of the essence of someone fleeing from something, a quick retreat back into nothingness with the hope that whatever it was she was running from would not follow.  Her pace was quick and even, denying the pursuit even as she fled.

     Onyx watched her for a long time in silence, and then slowly turned to continue her own journey to the headmistress’ office.  Her feet dragged across the ground in slow, heavy steps.

     She didn’t believe Stav, not for a minute, but the exchange had taken the wind from her sails and laid bare her barely thought-of plan.  She had expected it to be easy: everyone saw the girl, saw her need for help, and their usual good-hearted nature would awaken to the call of someone in need.  It had seemed so simple, but she was beginning to realize that it would be anything but.  It would take time, and she wasn’t sure she had much time left.  Stav was right—a team that couldn’t be a team was useless as hunters.  They would be kicked out of the school, failures, all of their dreams turned to ashes.

     Onyx froze in mid step.  She pulled her foot back in line with the other, standing straight and tall.  Her hands balled into fists, her shoulders trembling slightly as she fought for a brief moment the wave of frustration and despair.  She wouldn’t allow it to happen.  They all had their dreams, their hopes.  She wouldn’t let them give up on themselves, no matter how much they begged her.  Taking a deep breath, she lifted her eyes to the sky for a moment, searching.  The sky was a brilliant blue yet again, as if clouds could not drift across that cerulean expanse.  Onyx reached up and touched her face to be sure that it was dry, and then took off at a faster pace than before.

     She hardly saw the halls pass by as she entered into the main building and climbed to the top where the office awaited.  She had completely forgotten about the elevator, so engrossed in the movement of walking.  Each step became faster, lighter, as if walking her away from the dark corner of her mind that held her own pessimistic worries.  Run.  They were all running away from that dark corner.  Stav was consumed by it.  Gauri was lost in it.  Only Onyx seemed to be narrowly missing that seductive call.

     The rest of the journey to the office had gone by in a blur, bringing Onyx to the door of the office sooner than she had expected.  Mechanically, she lifted a hand and rapped gently at the large, wood door.  A moment later, and the door was opened by the headmistress’ assistant, Grillo.  He adjusted his cat-eye glasses, his frowning face telling her that she was late and that he didn’t approve.  Without a word, he showed her to her customary seat and then took his own position behind the desk near the headmistress’ right.

     Headmistress Azura Fay was a lithe woman with pale blonde hair and pale blue eyes.  She had aged gracefully, time barely touching her soft features and only accentuating her face with a wrinkle here or there, like an artist looking to perfect their work.  She wore a light blue suit, fitted to her like a glove but denying her the grace of youth.  The large mahogany desk was uncharacteristically cluttered with papers, files, and pictures.  Among the piles, the top of a desktop screen could be seen.

     “Big project?” Onyx asked casually as she adjusted her position a little.  She had been in the office so often that she seemed to know more about the headmistress than she should.  She hardly glanced at the frescos that wrapped around the walls of the room, telling the story of the various legends and myths of Remnant.  Onyx was far more interested in the papers on the desk.  A cluttered desk was a sign that something big was going on.  The last time she had seen the desk that cluttered was a few days prior to Kale’s passing.  She had played a prank that had upset more than a few of the staff.

     “Do your people not teach you anything about manners and etiquette?” Azura said flatly, never once lifting her eyes from the paper before her.  Onyx shrugged.

     “Only the important stuff,” she replied.  Azura let out a tired sigh and put the file down.

     “All right,” she said.  “You know why I called you here.  The Doctor came to me in a near tizzy, complaining about how you conducted a dehydrated, malnutrition, almost unconscious girl to his door.  Care to explain?”

     Onyx kept her report short, detailing how she found the girl and the reaction the girl had to the city she had entered.  “So you see; if I wanted to help her, I needed to consider her mental well being as well.  Her spirit was so stressed---to do anything else would have been worse.”

     Azura looked at Onyx from beneath her brows, her hands clasped before her chin as she contemplated Onyx’s words.  At last, she gave a loose shrug of her shoulders and leaned back in her chair.

     “At this point, we can’t really do anything about it,” Azura informed her.  “But in the future, be aware that in a physical condition such as she, the risk of stress is far more preferable to the alternative.  She well could have died while they were trying to help her, or even just on the way here.  You do know that, right?”  The phrasing of the question indicated that Azura did not believe that she did.

     “It was a gamble, I know,” Onyx said offhandedly.

     “Something you do far too often, Ms. Laverna,” Grillo interjected.  Onyx ignored the remark in favor of instituting her next plan.

     “Her name is Caelestis,” Onyx explained.  “She really could use some help.  She doesn’t have anyone in the world left to her and doesn’t know anything about city life or even technology…”  She was making some assumptions, of course, as she hadn’t heard Caelestis’ full story.

     “So you want to adopt her?” Azura prompted in an amused voice.  “Do you really think she can save your team, Onyx?”

     Onyx sat up straighter.  Was she really so obvious?  Her midnight eyes met the pale ones of Azura, unblinking. She took a moment to carefully consider her answer, knowing that the wrong answer would lose Caelestis the right to stay here.  It was a delicate dance with much at stake.  If she answered wrong, Caelestis would be back on the street and there would be no chance for either of them to fix their lives.  She wanted to present Caelestis in a way that would assure that she could receive some charity from the school as well.  If she played her cards right, everyone would benefit.

     “I don’t know,” she said at last.  Azura was the type of person who could see through a lie a mile away.  Honesty would be the best policy for this situation.  “But I do know this---she benefits.  She can get food, clothing, shelter, education, and a chance at life.  Her presence being a boon to my team is icing on the cake, but helping her was a request from Kale and I will stand by that.”

     Azura lifted an eye brow, a small smile quirking the edge of her mouth.  “So you plan to take full responsibility for your guest?”  Onyx nodded.  While most people would have questioned Onyx’s last statement, Azura had taken it in stride.  It was something that Onyx appreciated.  “Very well.  Grillo, draw up the paperwork and prepare the basic necessities.  She will need a different set of classes to get her caught up.”  Grillo nodded, tapping at his scroll quickly.  Onyx watched him for a moment, waiting to see if he would say anything.  Generally, he never spoke out against the headmistress while someone else was present.  Onyx had been privy to one very interesting conversation without them knowing it, and it had resulted in changing Azura’s mind about a course of action.  Onyx hadn’t learned what it was they were arguing of, having only witnessed the end result.  Watching him now, she could not tell if he would have anything to say about this later. 

     “I want you to bring the girl to me as soon as she is discharged from the infirmary, do you understand?” Azura ordered.

     “Yes, Headmistress,” onyx replied obediently.

     “And I don’t mean after anything else,” Azura elaborated.  “No side trips, mini-quests, or other such nonsense.  Bring her here immediately.  The Doctor has already informed me of her release date, so I know when to expect her—including the time.”

     Onyx nodded, managing a small spreading across her face.  Perhaps Azura knew as much about Onyx as she did about Azura.  This was a time where she had to make sure she was not distracted by other ideas.  It could lose her this chance.

     Rising to her feet, Onyx bowed a little to the headmistress, one of the few forms of etiquette her family had instilled in her for business meetings. “Thank you, headmistress,” she said with a genuine tone of appreciation.

     “Be off with you then,” Azura waved a hand at Onyx, dismissing her, and turned back to her pile of work.  Onyx made her way to the door, turning just in time to see Grillo lean over and point out something on one of the maps that was suddenly spread out over everything else.  Then the door closed behind her, blocking the scene from view.

     “Well, that went better than expected,” Onyx breathed in relief.  She would have to see the doctor about the release date, and then see if she could at least scrounge up a spare uniform for Caelestis.  Eventually, she would get Stav to take them shopping so that Caelestis could have a new wardrobe, and maybe look into a new hairstyle as well.  The poor girl’s hair was a mess of snarls and tangles.  The one attempt to run a brush through it resulted in the brush flying out the open window.  A nice, short hairstyle might be a nice change for her.

     As Onyx made her way back down towards the dorms, her mind turned over various possible makeovers for Caelestis.


	11. Battle of Wits

     Caelestis sat on the bed as usual, her eyes occasionally drifting towards the black eye near her.  _No.  Television_ , she corrected herself.  She allowed her eyes to wander a bit, to ignore the black screen and observe Don going about their cultural ritual of cleaning.  It was something that had baffled her the first time—not the concept of cleaning, just the reasoning.  There was no blood or sap or anything.  Don had insisted that there was dust and germs, microscopic evils that make sick people sicker, that had to be cleaned.  Caelestis had shrugged her shoulders and no longer found the act interesting. 

     Caelestis turned her attention to her feet and wiggled her toes with an unmasked joy.  The Doctor had come in earlier and removed the bandages.  He had warned her to go easy since the skin was still fresh, but had told her that she was mostly recovered and almost ready to leave the four walls of the hospital.  Part of her had suspicions that they had kept her in longer than necessary to give her time to adjust to this thing called technology.  It only annoyed her slightly, but given how she reacted to the television, she could understand their caution.  Most of the new things she had seen had been easy to explain based on her own experiences.  She had ridden a mule before in the mountains, so understood the concept of cars, but was still uncomfortable with the fact that they were objects that could move.  They weren’t living in any sense of the word, but they moved like they were.  It unnerved her.  Their techniques for healing were alien to her, but she understood enough about herbs and salves to figure out medicine and machines.  She understood the weird breathing tests that they had her do: her episode the other day had spurned it, so it wasn’t off that they would check her to see if she was okay.  Cleaning, beds, even buildings were easy to figure out.  On the rocky grounds of the mountains during the summer, her own people had used grasses and leaves to make cushioning.  They had also often used caves during storms, which was similar enough to the buildings and rooms that it didn’t bother her. 

     No, the only thing she couldn’t understand was this thing called television.  There was nothing in her experience for it.  Even comparing it to viewing dreams was unsatisfactory.  Dreams were in someone’s minds and personal.  This was a real, tangible image and sound that anyone could see.  Being unable to find a similarity in her own experience made her distrust the device, regardless of everyone’s attempt to comfort and encourage her to try it.  And yet...she was curious.  They called it entertainment, something to do when you had nothing to do.  If everyone in their over-sized clan did it, it couldn’t be all bad—could it?

     Caelestis swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood awkwardly.  She braced herself for any kind of pain, but none had come.  Once assured that her feet would not betray her, she inched closer to the television.  Stretching out her hand, she gingerly and ever so slowly reached out to touch the screen.  Her fingertip was not even a scant inch from it when a jolt ran through her hand and up her arm.

     “OUCH!” Caelestis cried out, jumping back in alarm and cradling her injured arm.  Already, the feeling was vanishing but she still shot the television an accusing look.

     “What!?”  Don rushed over to her, worry creasing his brow and his mule-like ears twitching nervously.

     “It _bit_ me!” Caelestis was still glaring angrily at the offending piece of technology.

     “Bit you?” Don cocked his head to the right a bit, questioningly.  His eyes lit up with sudden understanding.  “Oh, I see.  We call it static electricity.  It happens sometimes, but it is nothing dangerous.”  Caelestis frowned at him and crossed her arms over her chest.  “No, seriously!”  Don looked around the room for a moment, and then snapped his fingers as an idea came to mind.  “Wait right here, I will be right back!”

     Caelestis waited patiently for his return and was reward with Don wearing a shirt not like any of the nurse uniforms he usually wore.  Curiously, Caelestis approached him.

     “Okay, so touch my hand,” he instructed, holding his hand out to her with the palm up.  Caelestis did so, but didn’t notice anything unusual.  “Great, now hold on a second.”   He pulled the shirt off quickly.  Caelestis watched in interest as his mouse-brown hair was sticking up a little bit around his head.  He took up the shirt and rubbed it in his hands for good measure, then held his hand out towards her again.  Caelestis reached out to touch his hand—and immediately yanked it back as a similar charge ran up her hand and part of her harm.  She let out an expletive in her own tongue and shook her hand.

     “What did you do to me!?” Caelestis demanded as the shock started to go away.

     “Science,” Don grinned.  He immediately flushed under the scowl that Caelestis shot him, his usually sand-colored skin reddening instantly.  “Err…sorry, Miss.  We learned all this in grade school.  I always loved those classes.  I was excited to show you.”  He looked at the ground sheepishly, an obvious regret for his rash actions.

     “What do you mean, then,” Caelestis asked.  She made her way back to her bed and sat down.  The little movement had left her feeling a bit winded, and the unexpected shocks had startled her and made her breathing a little difficult.  Obviously, she wasn’t fully recovered, but she was used to this.

     “Like I said, static electricity,” Don explained, his brightness returning with a shine in his eyes.  “It is the building up of energy that creates it, but only certain objects and dry conditions create it.  We all have it happen at one time or another.”

     “Energy?  Like lightning?” Caelestis mused.

     “Very much,” Don agreed.  “I am no scientist, so I can’t explain it well, but we use it for most of our technology.  The television here, the machines we used to monitor you, the lights—pretty much everything you see has energy running through it to power it.”

     Caelestis looked at the walls thoughtfully, then at the television again.  It was a mind blowing thought: these people had harnessed lightning to fuel their daily lives.  They were practically using the power of the gods for everyday life, and that made her pause.  Don was still going on; describing various things they did with it.

     “We even use it to talk to people who are far away!” he said excitedly.  Caelestis glanced up.

     “How?  A voice is not energy!” she frowned, confused.

     “Well, everything is…you see…” Don frowned, trying to come up with a way to explain it.

     “Don,” Gauri suddenly spoke up from the corner of her room.  Both Caelestis and Don looked over at her, startled.  “Get me some paper cups and string.  Also, something sharp.”  Don nodded and immediately took off at a run.  Caelestis continued to turn over all this information in her head.  How could you hear someone who was far away?  Yelling, probably, but it didn’t seem like they meant that.  She was beginning to wonder if this science stuff wasn’t anything more than magic.

     Don returned, huffing from his run, and handed the items to Gauri.  She gave him a look and he immediately started to apologize, pulling the objects back and setting them up on her bed.  As she instructed him, Don began to make holes in the bottom of the cups and then thread the string through them.  After he had connected the objects, he had handed one to Gauri and the other to Caelestis.  Caelestis looked at the cup, turning it over in her hands and fingering the string with a puzzled expression on her face.

     “Go stand on the far side of the room,” Gauri instructed Caelestis.  Without questioning, Caelestis obeyed, going as far as she could.  The string became taught between them.

     “Can you hear me?” Gauri asked in a low voice.  Caelestis gave nod of her head.

     “Kind of,” she replied.

     “Place the cup opening to your ear,” Gauri said in a louder voice.  Caelestis obeyed.  At the same time, Gauri placed her cup to her lips.

     “Can you hear me?” Gauri repeated.  Caelestis jumped, staring at the cup in astonishment.  While the voice was slightly distorted, it was much clearer and closer to her ear even though she was sure that Gauri hadn’t spoken any louder than previously.

     “How did you do that?” Caelestis asked as she walked back to her bed and placed the cup in her lap.

     “Sound is merely vibration,” Gauri intoned flatly.  “Vibrations can be manipulated by energy.  That is the simplest way to explain it.”  Gauri let the cup drop from her hand.  “Bush folk really do know nothing,” she added in an annoyed mutter.  Caelestis was silent for a long moment.

     “I is nay imbecilic,” she said angrily.  Gauri looked at her.

     “You sound it,” she retorted.

     Caelestis stood up slowly and walked across the room to Gauri.  She was fighting hard to pull her anger and emotions under control, lest she lose command of the new language and become unintelligible.  Keeping a tight grip on her frustration and anger, she spoke, choosing her words with great care.

     “Just because we do not use the same tongue does not mean one or the other is imbecilic,” Caelestis said in a clipped voice.  “Just because our cultures are not the same does not mean one or the other is imbecilic.  You would be lost in my home.”

     “I highly doubt it,” Gauri said.

     “You have confidence?” Caelestis asked.  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Onyx walk into the room.  She had been about to say something but had immediately frozen at a sign from Don.

     “You can’t even hold a fork properly,” Gauri shot back.  Caelestis straightened and walked over to her side of the room.  From the cabinet, she took out all of her necklaces, including the discolored crystal, and returned.

     “Do you know Grimm?”

     “Everyone knows Grimm.”

     “Everyone knows _about_ Grimm.  But do you _know_ them?” It was an important distinction to Caelestis and Gauri seemed to catch the nuance.  Knowing Grimm meant that you understood their patterns, that you dealt with them on a frequent basis.  It was different from people who knew about the Grimm but never dealt with them.

     “I was in training to be a Hunter.  To kill them.”  Caelestis nodded at Gauri’s answer.  It was the one she was hoping for.  She had suspected that maybe Gauri had been mauled by Grimm during a battle, and her answer seemed to support this.

     “Then I challenge you to live min life,” Caelestis said with great ceremony.  Gauri made a face, but said nothing.  Caelestis immediately set to work, taking Gauri’s silence as an acceptance of the challenge.  She took up the string from the cups and bit them into varying lengths.  Using great care, she created overlapping boundaries of various shapes.  One was almost hand-like, the other mostly oval, and yet another circular.  She placed a smaller circular shape within the almost oval one, then leaned back to look at the arrangement.  Satisfied with it, she took her discolored crystal and placed it nestled near the hand shape, just outside the oval.  Then she took several beads and started scattering them within the shapes.  Numbers were never a part of her tribe; you either had enough or you didn’t, but Gauri was watching her intently and making mental calculations.  She noted that Caelestis had placed around twenty beads in the hand shape, six in the almost oval, one in the circle, and almost thirty in the round shape near the edge.  She also carefully teetered a few beads on the uneven cut of the crystal itself.  Once that was completely, she took about twenty-five beads and put them outside the boundaries she had created.  She pushed about seven away from the large group and crossed her arms.

     “Here is the challenge,” she announced with authority.  “The beads outside the strings are your kin.  That small group is the warriors that cane fight.  Everyone else is old or weak and can nay fight. May some cane fight but nay good.  These—“and she pointed to the hand-shaped area—“are the Beowolves.  Here—“and she pointed to the almost circular shape—“Are the Ursas.  That lone bead is the Deathstalker.  Below that, the many beads are Hoppers.  Finally, the beads on the stone are Griffins.  You must get your kin to the stone and don’t fight.  Too many fights means death.”

     Gauri looked at the setup.  Caelestis could not tell if the look upon her face was one of contemplation, of insult, or contempt.  She waited patiently as Gauri looked over the beads.

     “Cut through the lower part of the Beowolves’ territory,” Gauri finally answered.  “They are usually weak and easy to dispatch.”  Caelestis clucked her tongue at the answer.

     “You were nay listening?  Don’t fight,” Caelestis scolded.  She was still having trouble keeping her anger in check and it was showing.  “Most of yer kin is in the Twilight now.”

     “You can’t avoid fighting Grimm,” Gauri snapped.  “They hunt humans like they were rabbits.  The mere scent is enough to draw them to you.”

     “And yet min kin lived for seasons upon seasons,” Caelestis pointed out.

     “So what would you do, Bushgirl?” Gauri demanded.

     “Here,” and she began to draw an imaginary line with her finger.  She traced a path that cut through the lowest part of the Ursa territory, slipping through a gap between the Hoppers and the Beowolves.  After that, she followed the line of the Beowolves string until she came to the crystal itself.  As she drew this line, she spoke.  “Grimm come to groups of peoples, mostly large and emotional groups.  The tribe must make a line, like a serpent, and not be too close to others.  Some warriors is at the head, the tale, and the middle.  Beowolves are very dangerous.  They place lower Beowolves as scouts within their lands.  They give up a cry when prey is found.  They are fast and evil, able to tongue long distances, and difficult to defend because they swarm their prey.  Best to avoid them.  Hoppers swarm anything that moves and often draw other Grimm when they attack, so it is best to avoid them as well.  The Ursas, however, are slower and more like wanderers than hunters.  If ye pass their path, then you are dead, but if you are not in their path, you can slip past them easily.  There needs be enough space between you and them.  The Deathstalker mostly nay leaves its burrow in the Sun and is easy enough to slip by.  The last is the Griffins.  They move more under the moon and are lazier during the day, unless ye move under them.  Stay close to the mountain and stay away from the fields.”

     It had been difficult to put all of that into words they would understand.  It was far more than she had been ready to explain outside her own tongue, but she felt it necessary to redeem herself in Gauri’s eyes.  She wasn’t happy with her own words from her language slipping in, but they could not be avoided.

     Gauri stared at Caelestis.  Caelestis returned the stare without flinching, her back straight and her shoulders relaxed as she continued.  “My people were those of the Serpent, not the Bush, so named because of how we moved—in long, winding lines of people like the serpent.  It was nay always perfect, but we lived long before…”

     Caelestis stopped and took a breath.  Detailing her tribe’s method of travel and life had brought a lump to her throat, making her unable to continue.  After a moment, she cleared her throat.  “So tell me, would it work, great warrior?” she said instead.

     Gauri looked at the beads for a long moment before seeking refuge in the view outside her window.  She never answered her.  Caelestis couldn’t tell if she was furious or not and didn’t press it.  Instead, she took hold of the ends of her shirt to form a pocket and swept her beads and string into it.  Silently, she returned to her end of the room and pulled her bag out of the still-open cabinet.  She dumped everything into the bag, and then sat on her bed.

     “She got you, Gauri!” Onyx announced from her position in the middle of the room.  “She is right---that might actually work if you maintain vigilance!”  Gauri refused to look at Onyx or bother to reply.  Don was pretending to be occupied with his cleaning but was cocking an inconspicuous ear towards their conversation.

     “What happened when you were attacked by Grimm?  Why did you travel so long and so far?” Onyx asked, taking her customary seat at Caelestis’ bedside.  Caelestis was at first unwilling to answer these questions.  She was tired after the confrontation with Gauri and just wanted silence, but when she looked into Onyx’s sparkling eyes, she sighed and gathered up the energy to give a sufficient explanation.

     “We nay walked close together.  If Grimm attacked, only that small part was lost,” Caelestis said matter-of-factly.  “Others could see the attack and run or help.  We had many scouts.  They would lay the path of the lines before we began.  But not all scouts could fight.  Even our warriors was feeling the touch of the seasons, so we tried to avoid fighting.”

     “Why not stay in one place?” Onyx asked, leaning forward in interest.

     “There was no place left to settle,” Caelestis answered.  “While we had allies, none of the other clans would allow us to settle on their lands.  There was no safe place to settle, so my people traveled.  We followed the herds that we could hunted for food.  In the summer, we followed the herds moved up to the mountains.  In the winter, they returned to the forests and fields.  Our barter was simple: with the various peoples, we provided Judges.  We witnessed and helped with fights and quarrels.  Since we were outsiders,”  Caelestis paused.  It was hard to explain what her tribe did without knowing the words to use.  She decided to throw in her own words to see if they were recognized.  “We was nay moved by bribes.  We was always truthing and made fallens restitute themselves.  In return we could hunted the herds, was gifted safe passage and scouts, and barter things we needed like weapons or some kinds of food.”

     “It seems weird that a clan would trust outsiders like that,” Onyx mused.  She seemed to someone how catch the meaning, even if the words were off.

     “Not really,” Caelestis shrugged, mimicking a phrase she had heard Onyx use a few times now during their long chats.  “The peoples are like a spider’s web.  We need each other to survive.  We don’t have great walls or weapons that explode like a volcano, so we must help each other to survive.  Fights and bad blood between people draw the Grimm.  My people act like dirt on fire, and keep the Grimm from coming.”

     To Caelestis, it was just how things were.  She had grown up with that life and never questioned it.  Seeing this new clan with its new life and ways told her that such a life as she described was probably unimaginable to them.  It was far more complex than what she explained.  Some of her people married into the clans they were allied with while an occasional love-struck person would join their nomadic life.  Before she was born, the Elder said, her people were so great that they would split into several serpents and meet back up at the mountainside.

     “Wait…what about the Griffins?” Onyx asked.  “Those things are evil.  I can’t believe it was so easy for you to sneak by them!”  Caelestis smiled to herself.

     “That was our trade with the Two Stones,” Caelestis explained.  “At the start and end of the two seasons, they would clear out the Griffins that could attack us.  Since we passed such a small area, it was easy to do without bringing the others.”

     Onyx’s face was lit up like a child listening to fireside stories.  Caelestis was sure that she had had the same face when she was young and listening to the Elder spin the tales of the goddess, Tanit, and the silver-eyed warriors.  It eased her heart to know that some things were so similar between this world and her old one.

     “Oh, yeah!” Onyx exclaimed.  She reached down for the bag she had absently placed at her feet.  “I brought some gifts!!”  She rummaged around and produced a small box with a lid.  Opening the lid, she revealed a dark brown mass of what might have been food.  It was nothing that Caelestis recognized, but an amazingly sweet smell drifted forth.

     “I made this for both of you,” Onyx proclaimed with great pride.  She pulled out another identically little box and placed it on the shelf near the headboard.  After it was settled, she skipped over to Gauri and placed it near her as well.  Gauri was looking at the little thing with an expressionless face.  “It’s your favorite, Gauri!  Chocolate cupcakes with strawberry centers.  Try it—I got it right this time, I swear!”  Onyx quickly returned to her seat near Caelestis, desperately attempting to hide the hope in her eyes.  Caelestis took up this thing called a cupcake and collected a bit of the chocolate frosting on her finger.  She tasted it, and then grinned.

     “This is so delicious!” Caelestis exclaimed.  She devoured the whole thing quickly, licking the last bit of crumbles from her fingers.  Onyx beamed happily, preening under the praise.  Don, who had watched her practically inhale the treat, looked as if he was about to lecture her again on pacing herself while eating.  She had tried to explain that she couldn’t help it, but he didn’t seem to understand. 

     “I also brought you another gift,” Onyx said.  She lifted up the bag and handed it to Caelestis.  Caelestis took the bag carefully, settling it onto her lap before peering into it.  She frowned at what she saw, not sure what to make of it.  Slowly, she pulled out each of the objects until she came to one she recognized.  It was similar to the wrap she wore.  Another seemed to have arms that hung loosely to the sides.

     “This is a skirt,” Onyx informed her, taking the article from her and turning it around.  “I found you in something similar, so it should be easy to put on.  That there is a shirt.  It’s one of the nicer ones that I could find.  I am not sure of your shoe size and other…things…will have to be bought later, but at least you won’t stand out so much.”  Caelestis was curious as to what other things were necessary to clothe one’s self with and turned each of the items over to examine them.  Such a simple discussion was bringing her back into rhythm with the language again and she was finding herself make less mistakes.

     Gauri was staring at them, her face unreadable as she watched them talk about and handle the articles of clothing.  “Those were Kale’s,” she said flatly.  Her voice was so devoid of any emotion or feeling that it sent an icy chill down Caelestis’ spine.  She immediately put the clothing down.

     “Maybe this isn’t such a good idea…” Caelestis muttered.  Onyx shook her head.

     “It’s fine,” and she shot a hard glare at Gauri.  “She would have wanted to help you in any way possible.  You look about her size, so they should fit.”  Caelestis looked at the clothing uncertainly, then nodded.  Apparently her simple wrap was inappropriate by their standards.

     “All right,” Caelestis finally said.  “But only until I can find my own.  I don’t want to upset anyone.”  With the greatest care, Caelestis folded the clothing very neatly and replaced them back in the bag.  Onyx seemed satisfied with this answer and stood.

     “Well, I have…oh dammit!”  Onyx sat down again, her face crumpled in consternation.

     “What is it?” Caelestis asked in concern. 

     “I completely forgot!” Onyx cried in dismay.

     “What?” Caelestis tried again.

     “Oh, so _that’s_ why Weylin came in,” Don said suddenly.  Onyx glanced over at Don worriedly.

     “Did he say anything?” she asked.

     “Said he got the wind knocked out of him and wanted to be sure there wasn’t any other damage,” Don frowned.  “Wait…not again.”  Onyx nodded.

     “I was supposed to tell the headmistress what had happened, but I completely forgot,” Onyx moaned.

     “It’s fine,” Gauri said softly.  Everyone looked at her again.  She was speaking more and more often now, Caelestis noted.

     “True,” Onyx sighed.  “He will just assume that I told the headmistress and that his privilege had prevented any repercussions.  As always.”  Onyx stood once more, already displaying her more cheerful nature again.  She seemed to recover pretty easily from things like that.

     “Well, I will be back tomorrow to collect you,” Onyx said as she made her way to the door. “The doctor is finally letting you out of here!  See you then.”

     “I need to finish some more duties,” Don said.  “See you ladies later.”  He smiled at both of them and gave Caelestis a friendly wink before departing with his cleaning goods.

     Caelestis and Gauri were left alone in the room, their eyes meeting briefly before the latter sought refuge in her window once more.  Caelestis let out a sigh and reached for the remote.  With her release coming, she realized that she would have to get over her misgivings about their “technology” and such things.  Bracing herself, she hit a button and flinched as sound boomed forth from the screen of the television.  Somehow, she managed to remained where she was, though her heart started beating rapidly and her muscles tensed as if she was about to flee.  She pressed various buttons until she found one that eventually lowered the sound to a more comfortable level.  There were so many symbols and colors that she wasn’t sure where to start.  She pressed a random button and was surprised to find the image and sound changing.  A woman was crying on the screen and a man was looking on, disgruntled and isolated in the background.  Caelestis frowned and pressed the button again.  The image changed once more, revealing something that looked unreal.  They were people, but they didn’t look like people.  They seemed flat, like the drawings she did in the dirt, yet they moved and spoke.

     “Like stories…” Caelestis whispered, pressing the button again.  A woman filled the screen, visible only from the shoulders up.  She had blond hair and blue eyes and was holding some papers in her hands.

     “…is the question,” Caelestis had turned to the image right in the middle of her sentence.  The woman continued her conversation with an unseen partner.  “After all, what is the world coming to when a fifteen year old girl raises terror in the streets at night?”  The scene changed on its own to a young girl in a black dress trimmed in red.  She was effortlessly swinging a gigantic weapon that looked like the hooked tool the tribe in the meadows used, a confident smile on her face.  Caelestis was entranced as she watched the girl knock grown men to the ground and face off against a man with red hair.

     The scene changed, but Caelestis wasn’t paying attention.  Gauri had been drawn into her experiment and made a rude sound at the image.

     “Who was that?  Is she real?” Caelestis asked, turning to Gauri.

     “Yeah.  They have been going on and on about her for weeks,” Gauri informed her coolly.  “I think she is just a show-boater.  Such conduct should not be reward.”

     “Is she a warrior?” Caelestis asked.  She found the button to turn off the television and turned her full attention to Gauri.

     “Not yet.  She is in training…like I was….”

     Caelestis paused.  There was a question she wanted to ask Gauri, but she was a little nervous about prying.  Finally, she decided to just throw it out there since it might be her only chance.

     “Gauri…do you hate Onyx?” Caelestis asked.

     There was a long moment when Gauri said nothing.  She was staring at the cupcake that Onyx had made, the hint of sadness barely visible on the surface of her bandaged features.  Caelestis never heard yes or no, but she did see the lips move in answer.  Then, more loudly, Gauri said, “She needs to give up on me.”

     “Why?” Caelestis frowned.

     “Because….” Gauri went silent again.  The weight of the shadow that blanketed her heart seemed to conceal her completely.  All emotion fled from her, leaving her an empty husky that seemed to be absent of voice.  When she finally finished her sentence, the words had jumped out of nothingness.  “I failed…”

     Caelestis didn’t probe any further.  Between the talk of their friend, Kale, and her current condition, she could surmise that there must have been a Grimm hunt that went bad.  Caelestis felt a swell of empathy for her, suddenly not feeling so alone in her loss and guilt.  Rather than say anything more, she turned back to the television and switched it on again.  She spent the rest of the time surfing through channels, trying to ignore her own pain and force herself to no longer fear this strange technology, leaving Gauri to her demons while she tried to flee her own.


	12. The Way of the Tribe

     Caelestis shifted in her bed and let out a slow, even breath.  She was pretending to be sleeping, just in case Gauri was still awake and waiting to give her another withering scowl.  Ever since their argument earlier, Gauri had been even more cold and passive-aggressive to her.  Caelestis had spent most of the day watching the television to avoid interacting or even looking at her, but by the time the evening fell, Gauri had scolded her for watching the “tube” and told her it would rot her brain.  Caelestis, not really understanding television or electricity, believed her wholly and turned the thing off.  Now she lay in the dark, covers pulled up to conceal her face, pretending to sleep.  Across the room, she could hear Gauri’s even breathing, though it did not reassure her that she was free from her scrutiny.

     In the silence, Caelestis reflected on all that happened that day.  She couldn’t recall a time when she had ever been so aggressive or defensive.  Her people put a high value on survival and any conflict was seen as a threat to the lives of everyone.  It was quickly dismissed, put aside, or dealt with accordingly and never looked at again.  She had spent her whole life being pitied and looked down by everyone, so why it should bother her now of all times was confusing to her.  There were several points that made her feel a little guilty about the exchange, too.  She knew that Gauri was never going to walk again, or do anything on her own again and that she had lost someone important to her---to her and her friends.  That alone was enough for her to ignore the superior attitude Gauri displayed towards her.  They had both lost so much, Caelestis and Gauri, that they should be supporting each other.  Of all things, they should be able to find common ground but instead were constantly trying to assert dominance.

     Some part of her understood her own frustration.  Yes, she had dealt with similar attitudes for ages, and now she was in a new life.  She wanted a fresh start.  She didn’t want to be at the bottom again, looked down on and a burden to all.  She wanted to stand for something, to make her people proud and honor them, to prove that she was worthy of being _somebody_.  Gauri had known nothing about her or her experiences and had automatically condemned her.  She wasn’t going to stand for that.  She wanted a chance.

     As she was turning this thought over in her mind, she heard the soft tread of footsteps echoing down the hall and into their room.  In the quiet of the night, the steps were as loud as thunder and startled her.  She held very still and listened attentively, wondering who was coming at this time of night.  Don was gone, as were most of the day nurses.  Perhaps a doctor was doing what they called “making the rounds?”

     The steps halted, the sound ending abruptly in front of the foot of her bed, or perhaps the foot of Gauri’s bed.  She couldn’t be sure.  The curiosity of the late-night visitor was maddening to the point where Caelestis risked a shift in her position to catch a glimpse of who it was.  It wasn’t too difficult, as the person had stopped exactly where she had suspected, in between their beds and facing Gauri.  The wavy white hair and short stature led her to assume that it was the Doctor, the same one whom everyone treated as if he were the king of the hospital.  No one ever said his name.  He was just The Doctor.

     His hands were clasped behind his back as he waited patiently at the foot of Gauri’s bed, rocking gently back and forth on his heels.

     “I know you are awake, Gauri,” he finally said in a surprisingly tenor.  His voice was only slightly rusted with age, but strong and commanding.  There was a rustle as Gauri sat up, but Caelestis could see nothing due to the Doctor standing in the way.

     “Onyx send you again?” Gauri said coldly.  “Well, the answer has not changed.  No.”

     The Doctor moved without a word to the chair near the bed and sat down.  Caelestis quickly shut her eyes just in case Gauri looked at her.  She was tempted to hold her breath, but reminded herself that that was the surest way to draw attention to herself.  She focused on trying to maintain a slow, even, sleep-like breathing pattern.

     “Actually, it was your Mother and Father who asked me to talk to you,” he said calmly.  Caelestis ventured a peek and saw that he had crossed his legs and was leaning back casually in the chair.  The light from outside was highlighting his hooked nose and narrow features.

     “They shouldn’t be contacting anybody,” Gauri snapped angrily.

     “They are worried about you, Gauri,” the Doctor explained.  “Your own mother is beside herself with tears and begging to be allowed to do the surgery—“

     “I said NO!” Gauri almost shouted.  She fell silent immediately and Caelestis could feel their eyes shift towards her.  Deciding to play the part, she let out a low mumble and shifted again in her sleep to pretend to be disturbed.  After a moment, Gauri continued.  “Atlas is probably searching every rock and cranny to find them.  Contacting me or anyone else is too dangerous, let alone _coming_ here for a lost cause.”

     “You are the only one who thinks that, Gauri,” the Doctor chided her gently.

     “Then everyone else is a fool,” Gauri concluded.  “I have made my decision.  This is my life now.  This is what I have chosen to make amends.  I can’t turn back time, but I can atone in this way.”

     “Gauri, it wasn’t your fault,” the Doctor began.

     “Spare me your pity, Doctor,” Gauri said coolly.  “Leave me be.”

     The doctor rose to his feet and made his way to the door.  He paused in the doorway for a moment, looking at the room.  He seemed like he wanted to say something, but decided against it and left.

     Caelestis lay in the bed as silent as a tomb, trying to let the fading footfalls ease her anger, but it didn’t seem to have any affect at all.  As each step faded more and more, her anger increased.  Everything was flooding through her at once, like lightning, and she had no control of it.  It was like a tidal wave, all the words that had been spoken, everything she had been through and known, all of it sweeping around her and lifting her up into a chasm of bright hot fury.

     In one smooth motion, the covers flew from her bed and Caelestis was on her feet.  The paces between her and Gauri’s bed were a blur, and the next thing she knew she was gripping the metal bar at the foot of Gauri’s bed.  Her knuckles were white, she was gripping so hard, and her eyes were wide with rage.

     “You dew-beater!” Caelestis hissed.  “Pile of Grimm Dung!  You is the base of the stone, moss and scum!  Imbecilic self-thinking hollow stone!!”

     Gauri’s eye had widened to saucers, her body going tight as a spring at Caelestis’ sudden approach.

     “You…were listening?” she managed.  As Gauri spoke, Caelestis focused hard on trying to bring herself down enough to use the language she needed to vent her anger.

     “You is most self-thinking, ney kenning, string of Grimm spittle!” Caelestis spat out.  “You cane have is life, is beyond twilight and yet you is here, like a leech, sucking from all.”

     “What do you know?” Gauri growled.

     “I is kenning I have nothing,” Caelestis shot back, her own tears flowing against her will.  “I is have nay family, nay Ma nay Pa to see.  Ma an’ Pa, they is the greatest in life.  All they is want is ye safe, ye healthy.  But you spit on yer Ma an Pa.  Ye throw them to the Hoppers like broken leather.  Ye is nay punishing any but the loves and the lights.  Onyx.  Ma.  Pa.  The Doctor.  They is reaching for ye and ye is spitting like a beowolf.  Ye hurt them a mountain-size more than ye scratch ye.”

     Caelestis glared at Gauri with burning eyes, her whole body trembling.  She knew that half of what she said was unintelligible and she desperately wanted to be heard this time.  She tried again, trying to funnel all her chaos into simple words of the language she was still struggling with.  “I hate you for what you have.” The words were low, clipped and hollow.  “I want my Ma to protect me.  I want my friends to laugh with me.  You have that.  You have it all and you throw it away like trash.  And the worst.  You can live.  You can do things.  But you sit here, letting others take care of you so you can live lazy and do nothing.  I hate you.”

     “I am not doing this to be lazy!” Gauri protested.

     “How do you go to the bathroom?” Caelestis shot back.  “How do you eat?  How do you clean yourself?  Everyone does everything for you!  You speak of making amends.  What amends?  You insult this Kale, you throw her out of the Twilight and into the shadows.”

     Gauri seemed to sit up straighter.  “What are you talking about?” she asked.  Something had shifted in Gauri’s demeanor, something important and Caelestis seized this.

     “My people believe in two deaths,” she explained, relaxing her hold a little on the metal bar as she spoke.  “The death here is always present.  We go to the Twilight, to enjoy life where there is no Grimm and no pain.  Happiness and maybe the Goddess herself will visit.  We can stay in the Twilight on two conditions.  We must be remembered and we must be honored.  As long as one remembers, we will remain.  As long as we are honored, we can remain.”

     “Wait, so what if one person remembers and one doesn’t?  Or only one person honors you, but doesn’t remember?” Gauri asked.  She was gripping her blankets tightly with her one hand, her face desperately searching for something.

     “It depends on which is stronger,” Caelestis whispered.  “Onyx honors this Kale with all her being.  Perhaps that is keeping Kale in the Twilight, against your horrible dishonor to her.” 

     The rage seemed to have mostly vented itself and Caelestis was left feeling oddly empty and unwilling to talk, but she had started this and could not flee anymore.  Gauri was turning something over in her mind, and it was visibly having an effect.  She could tell that Gauri didn’t believe in these things, in gods and the Twilight, but that she was teetering about something important.

     “Why do you do this?” Caelestis asked finally.  Gauri was still thinking and didn’t seem to hear her.  Caelestis was about to repeat her question when she finally answered.

     “She is dead because of me,” Gauri said in a simple, empty voice.  At first, Caelestis wasn’t sure if she had heard her correctly.  It was strikingly similar to her own thinking patterns when she thought of the death of her tribe, and it always lingered in the back of her mind.  It stunned her that a person from such an advanced society could still harbor such illusions of fault and she didn’t quite know how to react to it.  Any response she gave would be a response to herself as well as Gauri, and she knew it.  After a brief moment’s reflection, she realized that there was only one response that she could give.

     “Ye is the imbecile,” Caelestis abruptly turned to walk away.

     “You know nothing of what happened!” Gauri shot back.

     “I will place leather that ye caned do nay then,” Caelestis said with confidence.  She kept her back to Gauri so as not to let her see her face, to see her own doubts about herself reflected in there.  Now she understood.  This simple confrontation had become a mirrored assault.  Caelestis found herself fighting and defending her own thoughts and feelings, the same questions that had haunted her for ages rising up to be heard.  Everything she held in her heart was reflected in another tortured soul, and it suddenly made her feel more confident in her own answer.  “There were two chances: her death, or together you die.  No other.  If there was something else you found, tell me now.”  After collecting herself, she turned to face Gauri.

    “I…I could have…” Gauri started.  Caelestis crossed her arms and waited.  “If I had moved sooner…”

     “You is fast like the Hopper?” Caelestis demanded.

     “Well, No…but it is my job—“

     “Then what could you have done?”  Caelestis took a moment to try and right her language a bit and push in some of the words she had already learned.

     “I could have used a rope…” Gauri was pleading, begging for confirmation.  It was like a shadow in her voice, reaching for hope.  Caelestis would have none of it.

     “And taken the same time.  No.  What could you have done?” Caelestis made the question into a demand, an order that it be answered immediately.  Gauri was floundering, her eye searching through various scenarios and listing each one only to have it dismissed by Caelestis.  Her face grew more taut with frustration, anger at not understanding how or why this bush girl could so easily dismiss her various ways of saving the day.  Each and every one was shot down until Gauri had nothing left and Caelestis was exhausted.

     “If ye had been the cause,” Caelestis said finally.  “Then I also am at cause.  But I could have done nay for my kin and neither could you for your friend.  If ye really want to punish yourself, find another way.”

     “How?” Gauri demanded desperately.  “How else can I do it?”  She seemed to really want to know how to punish herself for something she had no control over.  Caelestis supposed guilt did that, no matter what world you came from.  All their technology and they still struggled with the heart.

     “If ye are set here,” Caelestis said cautiously.  Caelestis turned away and made her way back to her side of the room as she spoke.  “Then live.  Honor her.  Be the best you can be and don’t look back.  That will be the greatest punishment to yourself because you do not wish to live.”  Caelestis mechanically began grabbing the things from her cabinet, checking the contents of her bag and then reached down for the bag that Onyx had brought earlier.

     “What are you doing?” Gauri demanded.

     “I cane nay stand to sight you,” Caelestis said simply.  “I is leaving.”

     “You can’t just leave like that,” Gauri snorted.  Caelestis ignored her and made her way to the door.  “The Doctor and nurses won’t have it!  You leave when they say.”  Caelestis ignored the desperate plea in Gauri’s voice and left the room, holding tightly to both bags as she walked.  She continued walking through the halls, undisturbed, until she found stairs.  She took them down without question and continued on, walking like a zombie through the halls and looking for the exit.  Her memory of coming here was foggy and she wasn’t sure she was on the right path until she saw large, glass doors that showed the outside.  She quickened her pace and managed to somehow push her way out.  Nothing was locked or sealed and no one had questioned or stopped her, though she had felt someone following behind the whole way.  Once outside, she looked around for something---anything---familiar and comforting.  Her eyes fell upon a small tree planted into a square of grass surrounded by rock.  Without hesitation she threw herself at the base and pressed her face against the rough bark.  The smell of fresh green and water refreshed her, the cool night air clearing her mind and drying her skin of the tears.  Never in her life had she been so angry, so full of hate.  All she could think of at the time was everything she didn’t have and how this girl was wasting it all.  It had just consumed her so quickly, like fire.  She had felt her blood burning, her eyes burning, everything.  Now she desperately wanted silence and shade.  She closed her eyes and remained curled up against the tree, confused and trembling in the night.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Gauri sat in silence after Caelestis’ departure, her own emotions a confusing whirlwind.  Why had her choice been wrong?  She had always prided herself on her logic, on her reasoning.  She was good at picking the right circuit, the correct schematics, the proper routes and wiring.  She could build a computer from two chips and a fan, but these things called emotions were an enigma to her.  Logic had told her that she was the tank, the one to pull the punches and shield her team.  She saw the arm pull back, saw the glowing device flying and had known what it would do.  She could have stopped it.  She could have leapt in the path and knocked it away.

     But no, the flight through the air was short.  Kale had been too close.  She would have never made it time and would have most likely died with Kale.  Even the bush girl saw that.

     She could have thrown something to deflect or block the device.  It would have been easy.  But again, the bush girl—who knew nothing about explosives or electronics—said that it would have just made more things fly around and cause more damage, and still would have killed the girl.  How could a _bush girl_ know that!?  She didn’t even know the word for debris!  It infuriated Gauri.

     And then Caelestis had talked about the Twilight.  Gauri had almost sneered at such stupid superstition until she remembered how much Onyx loved that kind of talk, and then something dawned on her.  Perhaps there was a reason for such absurd thinking.  Something about working with emotions and processing them.  She had never considered something like this and had listened intently, hoping to find a clue as to how to direct her emotions and bring back the calm, cool logic she knew and understood.  Everything Caelestis talked about was primarily about ensuring survival, of living the next day and working together as people.  Much like a team.  She saw the similarities instantly and starting doing comparisons between her own experiences with her team up until the moment of Kale’s death.  There was not much new as it was similar to what the school emphasized.

     Finally, Caelestis gave her final words—Live.  Honor her.  It had made Gauri’s blood go cold because she had felt like she was listening to someone else speaking.  It was the kind of words that Kale might have said in any situation.  It was what Onyx had been doing ever since the incident.  “It’s what Kale would have done.”  “I think Kale…” and so on.  Onyx lived like Kale still lived.  Gauri had thought it was just Onyx being unwilling to let go of the past.  Now she wasn’t so sure.

     Gauri reached over to the draw near her bed and pulled it open.  She lifted out her scroll and set it on the bed before her, staring down at it.  A list of missed messages was sprawled across the screen.  Some of them were from Onyx and a few classmates she occasionally spoke with in the lab.  Most of them were from her parents, blinking still from having not been checked.

     It would be dangerous, she realized.  She would be responsible yet again for the death of people dear to her if they were discovered.  Gauri closed her lavender eye for a moment, trying to push away the emotions and do things logically.  She needed that.  The emotions were just distracting her.  The facts were simple.  If she let her parents do the operation, she would be able to protect them and others; probably better than before.  Sitting in bed would not allow her to protect anyone, especially her parents.  They still needed her and they were really the only reason she hadn’t thrown herself from the window yet.  Onyx also needed someone to talk sense to her.  Onyx too easily believed in ghost stories and did things too randomly to be safe.  She could easily jeopardize anything the way she gambled with fate.  Then there was Stav….

     “Stav probably would like to string me from the rafters and disembowel me slowly,” Gauri sighed to herself.  She knew that Stav blamed her as much as she blamed herself.  But she had already decided.  Touching the phone, she closed her eyes and centered herself.  Having come to the decision had suddenly calmed everything inside of her.  She needed a secure line, and Jumping was the best way to ensure that.  It was late enough that no one would distract her, so she could make the connection easily.

     At her touch, her screen lit up and shined an eerie column of light around the room.  Setting herself into a kind of mental rhythm, she let her mind shift and felt the world speed by suddenly in a strange, almost hypnotizing wave.  Two faces were before her suddenly, one tired and haggard with deep circles under her eyes and hair flying wildly about her head.  It was her mother.  The moment she saw her, Gauri immediately burst into tears and lost the connection.  She scolded herself for the sudden emotion and attempted to calm herself.  It took her a while before she could bring back up the connection.  This time, it was her mother’s turn to cry.


	13. The Elder of the Sands

     Caelestis let out a long yawn and stretched, reaching her arms far above her head.  Along her back, she heard and felt various pops and cracks as her spine fell back into a more normal state.  Sleeping against a tree was probably not the best of positions, but she still felt refreshed.  She opened her eyes, tilting her head upwards to gaze at the leaves spattered with golden sunlight and smiled just a little.  It was almost the same as home.  It was hotter and drier, but the colors and the feeling of peace was the same.  Green and yellow were colors that went so well together.

     She recalled the evening before and the argument with Gauri.  It felt like a dream, like someone else had been yelling and crying, not herself.  She couldn’t bring herself to feel much regret for what had happened, though somehow she knew she should feel a little remorse.  She usually didn’t show such contempt for different values and perspectives of life, but the blatant disregard of friends and family was something she couldn’t stand.  Without that network of people, how could one survive or cope with the horrors that life threw at you?  She couldn’t forgive the willful insult when it was unjustified like that.  It didn’t help matters that she had learned that Gauri was choosing to be a burden to those around her and destroy her own life.  She couldn’t forgive such selfishness.  It went against everything she was taught, everything she knew, and it made her more cautious of this new tribe she had entered into. 

     After staring at the leaves for several moments, Caelestis straightened and began fumbling around the base of the tree for her bags.  It was still early morning, slightly cool and quiet with the sun not yet visible in the sky.  Caelestis sat back on her heels and took in the scene around her, trying to figure out where she should go and what she should do.  She vaguely remembered everything she saw when they had first come here.

     Caelestis was sitting at a tree that was in the center of a round courtyard which extended out from a large, reddish stone wall behind her.  The tree was the center of a pathway that formed a cross.  Before her was the hospital, perched on the edge of the courtyard and overlooking the city below and the desert beyond.  It dominated that end of the courtyard, surrounded by some trees she didn’t recognize.  The path to her right led to a small cluster of free-standing buildings that were connected by a covered walkway, providing shade.  Several benches were lined along that covered walkway with trees near each one to add to the refreshing coolness.  The path to her left was very similar but had only one large building standing on that end.  It had a large pool of water designed to look like a small waterfall, surrounded by stones and bushes.  It was very peaceful yet reminded Caelestis of how thirsty she was.  The whole scene was trimmed with a series of stone pillars that ran the full length of the perimeter, acting as a frame and window for the desert scene beyond.  Caelestis stared in wonder at these pillars, wondering how the flat slabs of stone balanced on their tops had been placed.  They seemed pretty heavy and sturdy.

     Shifting her view, she looked behind her to see that the path continued to a rock wall that dominated the whole back area.  As she took in this massive wall, she realized that it folded around and back towards what was more like a mountain than wall and that it reached up higher than the hospital.  The extended wall was marked by evenly spaced windows that seemed to mark each floor within, with the bottom floor interrupted by the occasional door.  Where the wall curved, a set of stairs had been carved into the mountain on each side, leading up to the next level.  She wasn’t really sure if it was a mountain she was on or just a very high cliff.  Caelestis squinted at the sky to see above her and could see more buildings above as well as a similar stone ring.

     It was while she was looking at this wall that she heard the fast click of heels on stones.  She had just enough time to turn around before she was smothered in a tight, tearful hug.

     “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Onyx sobbed over and over again.  Caelestis sat in shocked confusion, unable to comprehend what had just happened.  “She said good morning!  She said it to me---to me!” Onyx continued to babble.  She pulled back for a moment to wipe at the tears in her midnight eyes, smiling through her tears.  “She ate my cupcake!  She didn’t say anything about it, but she ate it!  She said good morning!” Onyx fell forward, embracing Caelestis again in an almost suffocating embrace, shaking the two of them back and forth.

     “What…what are you talking about?” Caelestis tried to ask through the cloth and hair that tried to clog her throat.  Onyx released her and laughed.

     “I didn’t even see you here!  I was so focused on what to do today,” Onyx explained.  Caelestis frowned; Onyx wasn’t making any sense.

     “What are you talking about, Onyx?  Did something happen?” Caelestis asked in concern.

     “I’m fine, I’m fine!  I should have seen you under the tree—the doctor told me you were here.  But we have so much to do today!  I just walked right past you earlier and went straight up to the room like normal.  And then Gauri said good morning and I just…” Onyx wiped at her face to brush away the tears that kept falling.

     “Are you okay?  Why are you crying?  Is something wrong?” Caelestis asked, taking Onyx’s hand in hers and looking her intently in the face.

     “No, no,” Onyx waved her hand dismissively.  “I am just…so happy.  It just happened so suddenly.  I don’t know what happened last night, but…for the first time in ages, she said something to me—on her own!”

     “Really?” Caelestis was baffled.  She was pretty certain she hadn’t done anything special.  She more expected Gauri to become more isolated and cold after what had happened.

     “Yes!” was all Onyx could manage to say.  She wiped furiously at her eyes again, trying to banish the tears that kept falling. Eventually she just shrugged and laughed.

     “Are you sure you are okay?” Caelestis asked in concern.

     “Yeah, I’m great---better than great!” Onyx stood, pulling Caelestis up by the hand.  “But the Doctor was pretty upset with you for leaving last night.  He let you leave, you know.”  Caelestis nodded.  So that was who had followed her on her way out.  “And now we have to go back into the hospital so you can change.  You can’t meet the headmistress in a hospital gown.”  Onyx was already pulling her back towards the entrance as she spoke, moving in quick, rapid strides.

     “The who?” Caelestis had barely managed to grab her bags before being hauled up and off.

     “The headmistress.  She is kind of like an elder,” Onyx explained excitedly.  “She has been waiting to meet you for a while now.  So we need to clean you up.  Get a shower.  Get dressed.  After the meeting, we probably have a lot to do today.”

     Caelestis could only nod.  It was beginning to dawn on her that she was about to join this new culture, to become a part of it, and it kind of frightened her.  What kind of things would she have to learn?  New mannerisms, for sure, but what else?  What kind of roles and jobs did they have?  There was no way that she could study to be a warrior.  Her own tribe had tried and failed with her.  Would they put her to work cooking or gathering things?  But it seemed like they didn’t need to gather anything.  Already, Caelestis could feel her confidence diminish as she realized that she would have no place in this society just like before.  She also worried about having to let go of the values she had held all her life.  Would she be expected to behave like Gauri—to dismiss those important to her like the mule flicking its tale at the flies?  No, of course not.  Gauri was an exception, she just had to be.  Onyx didn’t demonstrate any of those attitudes.

     In no time, Caelestis was washed and dressed and pushed out of the hospital by an over-eager Onyx.  Caelestis hadn’t needed to say anything about not wanting to see Gauri.  Onyx seemed to have figured it out intuitively and took over a random room on the first floor for the process of preparing her to meet the headmistress.

     Onyx guided Caelestis back across the courtyard and into one of the doors of the wall.  The door led to a long hallway full of other doors.  Some of the doors had windows that were rectangular slits about a heads-width wide in the upper half, allowing you to see a little of what was inside.  From what Caelestis could see, many of the rooms seemed to be large open spaces with benches set on at least one side for sitting.  One or two rooms had people in the center of the open space facing off, but she could see no more.  She figured it was one of the places where they trained to fight, and having it this close to the hospital made perfect sense to her.  After passing many branching halls and doors, they came to the end which held a large staircase that led up.  The stairs were well worn with the passing of many feet, looking almost smooth on the sides and in the center, like tracks.  Rougher stoned lined these wide grooves, separating the tracks into three wide columns that led up the stairs.  Together, they began the long climb to the next level.

     “First level is where our dorms and such are,” Onyx explained as they walked.  “Second is training and third is mostly academic classes and specials areas for the seniors who are about to graduate.”

     “What are dorms?” Caelestis asked as she examined the curious walls that looked like eroded rock.

     “That’s where we sleep,” Onyx replied.

     “Why are they so far away from everything?” Caelestis asked.  She could imagine that each level would be immense in distance.  Putting the living area in the center would have made more sense to her.

     “Training,” Onyx said simply.  “We have some of the highest stamina in the kingdoms because of this.  For the most part, the teachers are not too strict, but the training is.”

     “There are more places to learn?” Caelestis asked.

     “Yup,” Onyx grinned.  “In each of the four kingdoms, there are primary academies for hunters.  There are some secondaries as well, but the primaries are the main four.  Vale has the top academy, but I heard their physical requirements aren’t nearly as strict as here.  They do something right, though, because they put out some of the best hunters ever!  But we are a close second, I would say.”  Onyx grinned.  “Atlas is kind of questionable…” Onyx skipped on ahead without explaining the comment.  Caelestis ran to keep up, curious about this system of learning.

     “How long to do you train?” Caelestis asked.

     “Each school has its own timeframe, but usually between three to four years,” Onyx directed her down a random hall and up another flight of stairs.  “We have to be prepared for any kind of job, not just killing Grimm.”  Caelestis nodded thoughtfully.  “I bet you would be a great huntress!”  Onyx threw the line out suddenly, beaming with pride at the idea.

     This remark startled Caelestis.  She stopped where she was and frowned, crossing her arms over her chest.  Shaking her head vigorously, she said, “Impossible.”  Onyx stopped and turned, her own brow creased in confusion.

     “Why?”

     “You heard about what had happened with the television when it was first introduced to me,” Caelestis said evenly.  “It always happens.  I’m physically weak.  There is no way that I could possibly be a warrior—my own people gave up on the idea!”  Onyx suddenly chuckled and shook her head as if she had just heard the funniest joke.

     “That’s probably because they didn’t know of the different _kinds_ of hunters,” Onyx reached over and grabbed Caelestis’ hand.  “Come on!  We’re going to be late!”  She dashed off, pulling Caelestis in her wake without looking behind her.  By the second flight, Caelestis was barely able to catch her breath and forced Onyx to stop for a break.  Onyx began to apologize, and then suddenly slapped her hand to her forehead.

     “I totally forgot,” Onyx chided herself.  She fumbled around in her side pouch and pulled out a small purse that seemed very durable.  “Here, the doctor told me to give you this.” 

     “What is it?” Caelestis asked, taking the hard container in her hands.

     “It’s a special medicine for your breathing problem,” Onyx explained.  “The Doctor said that now that your aura is back up, it should start to fix the damage and put you on the right track—but until then, take this if you start to have trouble breathing.  Here, let me show you how to use it.”  Onyx took the purse from Caelestis and popped it open.  Inside was a strange device in an almost L-shape with a hollow opening at one end.  “Put it close to your lips like this and push this button---at the same time, inhale.”  Onyx mimed the actions after her explanation.  When she finished, she handed the thing to Caelestis and encouraged her to try it.  Caelestis stood up straight and followed Onyx’s example as best she could.  As she pushed the button and inhaled, a cloud of mist shot from the device and into her mouth.  It felt like it hit the side more than her throat and caused her to jump a bit at the sudden impact.  A strange taste was settled on her tongue that she didn’t like.  Onyx immediately handed her a container of water and instructed her to rinse her mouth.  Caelestis did so, and then leaned against the wall, taking stock of herself.  She waited several minutes.

     “I…do feel different,” she remarked after letting the medicine process through her body for a bit.  It was true.  The pressure from her chest while climbing the stairs seemed to lessen and she didn’t feel like she was fighting the very air for breath.

     “Let’s take it a little slower from now on,” Onyx suggested.  “Keep that on you.  He will give you a daily later if you need it.”  Caelestis nodded as Onyx helped her latch it on to a loop on the skirt using a metal hook.  After she was satisfied that it wouldn’t fall off, they resumed their journey.

     It wasn’t long before they found themselves back out in the open air on the third level, which had a very similar layout to the one they had left.  They had come out a side door.  The center of the tier was almost like a garden with a beautiful fountain of water dominating the center.  The walls of the mountain served as the upper buildings, and at the open end of the ring was only a wide stairway leading down.  Opposite the stairway was a large, central building built into a cliff wall and reaching towards the sky.  It was an almost circular building with a bulbous, round top that collapsed slightly inward and had a thin tower sticking out of it.  Simple geometric shapes decorated the trim and the walls were polished red marble.  It was both intimidating and awe-inspiring.

     “That is the main building,” Onyx said.  “The Headmistress Azura is waiting there.  Let’s go.”  Onyx led her through the large double-doors and paused at the main hall.  She was looking at a series of partitions in the wall, her finger to her chin in contemplation.  “Hmm…up for a small adventure?” Onyx looked towards Caelestis.

     “Adventure?” Caelestis fidgeted nervously, staring at the wall.  “What kind of…adventure?”  Rather than answer her, Onyx quickly snagged her hand and dragged her towards the wall.  Once they were within arm’s reach, she pressed a round piece of décor and waited.  The round thing lit up, followed by a series of chimes as another light shined above the partitions.  Each chime came progressively closer and closer, causing Caelestis’ hair to rise on her skin.

     “Onyx…” Caelestis said nervously as the sound got louder and louder.  There was a final, loud _ding_ and then one of the partitions slid open.  Caelestis nearly jumped out of her skin.  Onyx didn’t even give her a chance to protest, dragging her into the small, enclosed room.  The partition slid close, trapping them in the tiny little space.

     “Onyx…” Caelestis repeated more anxiously, clutching Onyx’s hand in a death grip.  The room seemed to shift, pressure forming around her as if she were moving even though she was standing completely still.  A soft hum seemed to surround them.  “Onyx..!” Caelestis said more loudly.

     “Relax!  This is an elevator.  It is much easier than the stairs,” Onyx gave a lopsided smile and struck the wall with her other hand. “See?  Solid.”  Caelestis had released Onyx’s hand then and sought the cool, smooth metal rail that ran the perimeter of the tiny room.  She gripped it tightly, her face pale and her knees trembling as they continued to move without moving.  The ding stayed with them as they continued the journey upward, never changing in tone or distance.  Above the partition, there was a series of lights that lit up in succession and died out as they moved.  Then, the door slid open and Caelestis half-bolted, half-stumbled out of the tiny room.  She glanced back just in time to catch the partitions sliding closed behind Onyx.

     “What would have taken us ages took us but a few moments,” Onyx announced.  She pointed to the scene before them.  Caelestis turned to see a large window that took up an entire wall.  You could see forever beyond it, further than the previous level.  It was like standing at the top of a mountain and looking over the valley.  Caelestis gasped in surprise, moving towards the window as if she were hypnotized.

     “The world is so big…” she whispered as she touched the pane of glass.  The vast scene before her made her feel small and alone, reminding her of everything that was gone from her life and everything that was uncertain from this point on.  She turned away from the window and silently followed Onyx towards a large set of doors that seemed to be made of colored glass and trimmed in gold.  Already, the adventure of the elevator was forgotten in favor of darker thoughts.

     “This is the place,” Onyx announced.  She tapped at the door and waited.  They didn’t have long to wait.  Moments after she tapped, a smaller door within the large one opened and a man stood before them.  His deep, almost viridian hair was pulled back into a ponytail tied with a leather thong, a long formal coat stopping at just below his knees.  She wasn’t sure why she felt the coat to be formal, but she half expected him to run a ceremony while at the same time could see him walking down the street with a bag of snacks.  The vest also felt formal, but the shirt and trousers seemed more casual for some reason.  The shoes themselves had a small, square shape at the end and were polished to perfection.  It was an interesting style that seemed to work for him.  “Hey, Grillo.”  Onyx entered without being invited, earning a scolding glare from him and a horrified look from Caelestis.

     “You must be Caelestis,” Grillo said, turning his hazel eyes to Caelestis.  Caelestis snapped to attention, trying desperately to decide which form of manner would be best for someone who was obviously so important.  At last, she chose to bow at her waist.

     “I am glad to meet you in this journey,” she said stiffly, adjusting the phrase to the rules of the new language. 

     “The Headmistress is waiting,” Grillo said, a hint of approval tinting his words.  Caelestis entered into a large room that well could have fit a whole tribe in there.  The center of the room was mostly empty and cold except for an expansive woven rug with a beautiful design wrought into it.  It seemed to be three large knives with wings, woven in gold and surrounded by a light beige background.  After crossing the carpet was a large desk.  Onyx had glanced at the desk and lifted an eyebrow to the slender elder woman sitting behind it.  The two of them seemed to have a small conversation with their eyes.  When the conversation seemed finished, Onyx gave her famous grin and sat down.  Caelestis was still making her way across the room, her eyes following the scenes seemingly engraved on the rock walls.  It was as if many stories had been etched into the walls with lifelike and beautiful precision.  There were some scenes that had groups of people gathered around one or two figures and seemed to be praising them.  Other scenes showed people fighting Grimm, some dying and some winning.  At the back was an ambiguous woman with angel wings stretching out to embrace the desk before her.  A serpent seemed to be coiled over her head like a shield, glaring with ruby eyes out at the room.

     “Tanit!” Caelestis exclaimed, falling to her knees and pressing her forehead to the ground hastily.

     “Actually, just one of the many legends I enjoy,” said the woman from the desk.  Caelestis ventured a peek upward.  “I believe this one shows one of the many stories of the Silver-eyed warriors.  On the far wall over there is the story of the Maidens.  I have always enjoyed these stories and am a bit of a collector of anything related to them.”

     “But the pose….the serpent…the wings…” Caelestis began.

     “You have seen them before?” the woman asked curiously.  Caelestis bit her lip.  Yes, she had seen something similar a long time ago.  She had followed the Elder to the Cave—something strictly forbidden.  She had never told a soul for fear of being cast out of the clan for breaking such an important rule.  She wasn’t about to admit to such a breach even now, despite the fact that there could be no repercussions.  The Cave had been holy ground, said to hold a gift from the Goddess herself.  Her clan had guarded it for generations.  It was the real reason her people had never settled, but a reason that they never discussed with anyone—not even amongst themselves.

     Prostrating herself again to the floor, she said in a low, clear voice, “Elder of the Sands.  I greet you on this journey.  May your visit to the Twilight be long in coming.”

     “You may rise, Child,” the woman said with equal formality.  “I welcome you to my clan and my abode.  Sit as a guest.”  Caelestis rose and found her seat beside Onyx, who was giving them both curious looks.  The woman at the desk, while obviously well acquainted with the touch of time, had a youthful appearance to her.  Caelestis didn’t doubt that she was at least close to the same seasons as the Elder had been, but she could easily have passed for a much younger woman.

     “How did you know what to say to her, Headmistress?” Onyx asked curiously.

     “I did my time outside the kingdoms,” the headmistress said simply.  “Not all places are as advanced as here, but there are similarities everywhere.”  “My name is Azura Fay.  You may call me Headmistress Fay.”  The headmistress gave Onyx a sidelong glance before continuing.

     “I am Caelestis of the Serpent tribe under the hand of Tanit,” Caelestis replied.

     “So, where do you come from, Caelestis?” the headmistress asked in a conversational tone.  Grillo had taken up a place behind her and to the right, holding a long tablet similar to what the doctors and nurses sometimes carried.  Caelestis could tell that he was watching them even as his eyes were focused on the tablet before him.

     “I come from across the big waters,” Caelestis said.  “I rode on a boat with the sun over the waves, then crossed the burning sands until I came to a great stone wall.”  Azura sat back in her chair, steepling her fingers under her chin.

     “That is quite an impressive feat,” she said.  “Tell me your story, Caelestis.  Tell me everything you can.”

     Caelestis looked at Onyx, then at Grillo.  She hugged herself, rubbing her arms in thought.  Everything.  She had known that this moment would come, but she just hadn’t prepared for it.  Pressing her hands into her lap, she raised her eyes and summoned up her courage, steeling herself for the long, painful story she was about to share.  Story.  She nodded to herself.  That is what she would do.  She would tell a story.  Caelestis adjusted her position enough to allow her back to be straight and rested her hands on her knees, taking a similar position to the Elder when he was about to share a tale with her and the clan.  He had given her some tips and let her tell a few stories as she got older, so she felt confident that she could do this.  She could pretend it had happened to someone else, and thus be able to tell the story without having an emotional breakdown.  At least, that was her hope.

     “It all started when the first cold wind told the Elder it was time to begin the journey back down to the valleys,” Caelestis began.


	14. Preparing for Departure

     Gauri was sitting in her bed、gazing at her scroll which was lying in her lap.  She reached up and scratched at her head, the soft gauze that wrapped around it irritating her skin.  It had never really bothered her before, but now she felt more aware of it.  It was itchy and uncomfortable.  The other half of her head, which was not wrapped up, was starting to regrow the hair that had been shaved off.  It was a thick carpet of black hair, maybe half an inch thick if that.  The sun was shining as it seemed to do every day, pouring through the window in a solid, unbroken curtain of light.  Half of the square of light was on her bed while the other half spilled onto the floor.  Outside the perimeter of the warm, broken square of sunshine, a sigh drifted to her ears and made her cringe.  She had lost track of how many times she had been subjected to that hopeless sigh, and like all those times earlier, she attempted to ignore it and focus on her task.

Ever since Caelestis had left in the middle of the night, Gauri had been talking to her mother.  They had spoken for hours and hours, and had worked through many things.  Her father had also occasionally joined the conversation to share his own opinion and ideas, but he also had that distracted look upon his face that indicated he was working on something important.  She had attempted to ask him about it, but had he had avoided the subject with a small smile, secretive smile.  That made her suspicious of what he was working on.  It wouldn’t have been beyond him to start preparing things for the surgery, regardless of how many times she told him she was not going to do it.  He was as stubborn as she, and he liked to prepare for possibilities.  The very fact that she had contacted them might have motivated him to work more diligently on it, regardless on if she had actually changed her mind or not. 

At the moment, Gauri had just finished typing out a response to her mother, who seemed to have a million and one questions every ten minutes.  She contemplated the response for the most recent question, giving herself a moment to be sure that the answer was not misleading and as adequate as possible.  A confirmation message blinked on the screen.  Gauri entered in the confirmation message and code to allow it to enter onto the line she had created for the scrolls.  It was one of those times where she was really grateful for her semblance.  Typing out the message with just one hand would have taken forever, but her abilities allowed her to bypass her handicap and enter the message with ease, among other things.  Once the message blinked off, she leaned back and closed her eye in fatigue.  She had a headache.  That happened whenever she over-used her semblance. 

Last night, after her long conversation with her mother, she had hacked into the lines and re-encrypted the connection between their scrolls so that her mother could contact her without worry.  It hadn’t been easy, but she had managed it without tripping any alarms in the Cross Continental Transmit System, nor damaging the delicate networking she had established all those years ago.  Her mother had taken full advantage of the secured access to her daughter and had constantly sent messages; sometimes several within the span of a few minutes.  It was a bit annoying, but she understood her mother’s feelings.  There was a lot to prepare for before she left, and she was as nervous about the reunion as her mother was.  Her father, thankfully, was far more reserved in the matter.  Between herself and her father, the two of them had always been able to have the deepest conversations with the fewest words possible.  They had always been on the same page, thus making communication far less strained between them.  It was, unfortunately, not the same with her mother.  The two of them were like night and day and at times exchanged less than favorable words when they were in a disagreement. 

     Another sigh from the foot of her bed broke her train of thought.  She cracked open her eye and glared through the slit at the culprit in the darkened area between the two bright, sunny windows.  Don was lethargically doing his daily routines, his energy at an all-time low.  He constantly cast wistfully sad glances at the now-empty bed across the room as he worked, his mule-ears drooping to the sides of his head.  He had been like that ever since the start of his shift that morning.  He had come in as chipper as ever, smiling broadly while he pushed in breakfast and completely oblivious to the fact that he had only one tray of food upon his cart.  He had looked in confusion at the empty, unmade bed across from Gauri and had asked in a nervous voice where Caelestis was.  Gauri had summarized the events leaving out the details of their arguments and shortening her absence to reflect Onyx’s arrival earlier before breakfast.  He was crestfallen at the news, and everything he did became a slow, melancholy expression of his disappointment.  Gauri couldn’t honestly fathom his behavior because he was a nurse in a hospital, and the point of the hospital was to get the patients out and on their feet as quickly as possible.  At the moment, he had paused to stare at the empty bed, his ears sagging around his face and shoulders slumped.  He let out another sigh as he returned his attention to his cleaning.

     “You have got to be kidding me,” Gauri blurted after yet another heartbroken sigh.  Don looked over at her in surprise.

     “What?” he asked innocently.

     “You carrying on like it’s the end of the world,” Gauri snapped.

     Don gave a hurt look and lowered the cloth he was using to dust.  He turned his head a little to look one last time at the empty bed before turning his attention to Gauri’s charge.

     “She didn’t even say good-bye,” Don whined.  He leaned against the wall with the most dejected look upon his face Gauri had ever seen.

     “You are in a _hospital_ ,” Gauri groaned.  “Patients come and go all the time!  You of all people should know that.”

     “I do!” Don replied defensively.  He stood up a bit straighter, his hand balling into a fist around the cloth he was holding.  “But she isn’t like other patients.  The hospital is pretty safe—she only had to deal with one or two people at a time.  Now she is out there, in the world.  There are hundreds of students here!  She has no way to prepare for what is out there!  I mean, remember the TV?”

     “You aren’t still going on about _that_ , are you?” Gauri grumbled.  She had gotten no sleep the night before and was in no mood to cater to his lamentations.  The conversation was already beginning to tire her out and irritate her more than when she was just listening to his sighs.  She wanted him to finish and leave so that she could be alone with her thoughts, but he seemed to have other ideas. 

Don tossed the cloth into the nearby bucket that was placed at the foot of Caelestis’ bed with a casual flick of his wrist.  He took a couple of steps closer to her side of the room and reached out a hand to grab the back of the chair near her bed.  In one fluid, practiced motion, he lifted the chair just a bit off the ground, twirled it in his hand until the back was facing her, and then took a seat astride the seat.  He crossed his arms over the back of the chair and rested his chin in the V formed by his folded arms.  Gauri rolled her eye at his juvenile attempt at being suave.  There was a pause as he seemed to suddenly be interested in his hand more than their conversation, then he returned his attention to her and spoke.

     “Listen, Miss Gauri,” Don said in a suddenly matter-of-fact tone. “You and I, we ain’t so different from one another.”

     “Oh please,” Gauri fumed.

     “No, really,” Don insisted.  “You and me, we are good in matters here—“and he tapped at his temple—“But we ain’t so good with matters here—“and this time, he tapped at his chest near where his heart.  “You are a genius with technology.  I heard it myself from Onyx and the Doctor.  You can make, fix, or explain anything that has to do with science and technology.  You just ain’t too good at dealing with your own emotions.  That is where you and I differ.  I am a genius with medicine—“

     “And modest, too,” Gauri interjected.  Don ignored the remark and continued.

     “I can pick out any medicine on sight or smell.  Just looking at one symptom, I can hand you just what you need to get you back on your feet.  The Doctor said he hasn’t seen a finer stitcher than me.  Problem is, unlike you, while I do understand my feelings and all, I just can’t _explain_ things.”  He paused again, his interest in the palm of his hand conspicuously suspicious.  Gauri crossed her one arm across her chest, bracing it on the cast of the other and narrowed her eye.  “I couldn’t explain static electricity to her, so I showed her.  I wanted to help her, but I couldn’t find the words to.  Heck, I prolly couldn’t even describe an apple to a person with perfect vision, let alone someone who was blind!”  He glanced to his hand again.

     “Are you…reading this off your hand?” Gauri scoffed.  She hadn’t even finished the sentence when Don’s face began turning a bright crimson red.  He immediately dropped his hand off the back of the chair and to the side of his leg and started rubbing it nervously on his pant-leg as if to clean off some speck of dirt.

     “I said I wasn’t good at explainin’ stuff,” he muttered, casting his dusky eyes aside in embarrassment and running his fingers through his hair.  “I wanted to apologize to her about the static electricity and TV thing…again…and try to explain myself a bit.  I want her to forgive me with understanding.  Not just because.  So I asked the head nurse to help me write it out so I could do it right.”  His face indicated that he had decided to give up, his eyes lowering and his shoulders slumping in defeat.

     Don stood up and put the chair back where it should be, then turned to pick up his bucket.  All the suave attitude and confidence was completely gone now, replaced by the slow and lugubrious movements of earlier.  Now that he had been caught at “cheating” in a conversation, he seemed anxious to be gone from the room.

     Gauri watched him move, suddenly feeling a stab of pity for him.  Explaining anything was not easy, but struggling like he seemed to must be horrible, especially considering his aspirations.  It was probably why he just an intern rather than the doctor he should be, what with his knowledge and skill in medicine.  The problem was that the staff required him to be good with people, not just medicine and treatments.  His bedside manner had always been a bit lacking, she supposed, but since she wasn’t exactly a stellar patient, she hadn’t given it any notice.  He had probably seen Caelestis as the perfect chance for him to prove that he could work well with people—and had really screwed that up.  Now, he wanted to redeem himself, and he had decided that the person he had screwed up with the most would be his best chance.  With her own struggles of closure and redemption fresh in her mind, she suddenly felt sympathetic to his plight and decided to help him. 

In the time it took him to put the chair back and pick up his bucket, Gauri had already ran through the various scenarios that would result in Caelestis’ current location and position.  It wasn’t too hard.  She knew what time she had left because Onyx had come to specifically pick her up.  It was only logical that the headmistress would want to interview this strange girl and determine if she really belonged at this academy or not.  Caelestis had quite a story to tell, and anyone doing research on anything would take the time to ask detailed, sometimes emotionally draining questions to get to the facts and truth.  Considering the general schedule of the school, the behavior Caelestis had demonstrated over the last few days, and Onyx’s nature, it was pretty easy to identify the two most likely positions that she would be in at any given time. 

     “Don,” Gauri called to him as he started heading towards the door of the room.  He paused and turned to face her.  “Do you really want to talk to Caelestis?”

     “Yes!” he answered without any hesitation.

     “What time is it now?” she asked.  She hadn’t bothered to check the time in her scroll because it really had no meaning to her at this point.  She couldn’t go anywhere or do anything.  Time was mostly based around what meal she was eating.  Even any checkups or tests were negligible because the doctors and nurses managed those schedules; Gauri just sat in the bed and waited.

     “Almost lunch time, Miss Gauri,” Don replied.  “I was going to go and get your meal for you now.”

     “Send someone else,” Gauri said far more curtly than she had intended.  Before he could protest, she continued.  “Get yourself to the third tier.  Just wait out in the courtyard.  She should show up there soon, either from the main tower or the side rooms.”  Don stared at her with a completely blank, uncomprehending face.

     “Wh…huh?” he stammered.

     “It’s quite simple,” Gauri explained impatiently.  “She left this morning with Onyx to see the headmistress.  The headmistress is going to ask detailed questions to figure out who she is and where she came from.  It will be a long talk.”

     “But not over four hours!” Don protested.

     “Of course not,” Gauri chided.  “After that, Caelestis will have received a choice to get food or continue on with an exam to determine what she knows.  The headmistress always helps out students in needs—why would Caelestis be any different?  Onyx, being Onyx, will get so excited that she will let slip what a cafeteria is and how many people will be there.  Caelestis will become nervous and not want to deal with that many people all at once, so she will take up the assessment first.  If you hurry, you will probably make it just as she is about to finish up.”

     Don stared at her for the longest moment.  She didn’t even flinch under the gaze and waited patiently for his mind to comprehend the opportunity she was presenting him with.  Patterns were easy, especially the kinds that were mostly based on reactions and interactions like chemicals, and this particular assessment was a cake-walk for her.  Sure, it didn’t show-case her greatest abilities, but it was a nice warm-up after such a long sabbatical from logical thinking and analysis.  She wasn’t predicting emotions or the whys of what people felt, she was just dealing with their initial reactions.  In that, humans were rarely different once they had established certain traits.  It wasn’t full-proof, of course, but it generally helped her position herself where she needed to be during fights.  That one evening had been an exception, a miscalculation that had cost her dearly.  It was that day that she had realized how she had often dealt with knowledge she had attained prior to fighting.  Grimm always behaved the same.  Students she fought with in classes and training often retained their same habits from other classes and interactions.  But the woman they had fought that night: she hadn’t known her.  She hadn’t known what her semblance was, how her fighting style was, or anything that was most important.  That had been her biggest failure.

     “Are you sure?” Don was stupefied.  Gauri snapped out of her reverie at the sudden question.

     “Well, not one-hundred percent,” Gauri admitted. “There is a chance that she is at the cafeteria.  I would suggest checking there if you don’t see her within ten or so minutes of arriving on the third tier.  Those are really the only two places she could be at this time.”

     At last, the implications began to enter into his mind and his eyes lit up at the sudden chance set before him.  A huge grin split his face all the way across and his mule-ears suddenly shot upright in delight.  He gave a little jump and a yelp of joy, then dashed out of the room faster than she had ever seen him move.  Gauri was finally alone like she had wanted, the silence suddenly rushing in like water to a hole.  She wasn’t really sorry that he was gone, but she was glad that the next time she saw him, he would most likely be his normal perky self.  Depressed-Don was just not her cup of tea.

     Gauri’s eye turned back to her phone in thought, the issue with Don already floating out of her mind like a cloud on a windy day.  She had other things to prepare for and to think about.  Gingerly, she reached up a hand and touched the soft fuzz of hair on her scalp.  She refused to look in a mirror, mostly because the sight of her bandaged face horrified her.  They had kept her head shaved for over a month because of the work they had had to do on her eye and ear, and they occasionally brought her in to redress the wound and keep the hair down.  Recently, they had allowed the unwrapped hair to grow back a little.  At first, she had been a little disappointed with the loss of her long, tightly curled hair, but after some thought, she began to see it as an opportunity.  It would make her headpiece much easier to wear, but she would have to redesign it: and for that, she would need materials.  She tapped on the scroll and already started working out a message to her father.  Her mother was terrible at picking out materials for these kinds of accessories, but her father had an amazing sense for color and design.  After entering in the names of each of the materials, she reviewed the list to be sure that it was complete.  Satisfied with the list, she sent it on to her father, then leaned back again against the pillow to take stock of her own physical condition.  First she looked at the huge, thick cast that covered her left arm.  She tapped on it with her right hand and touched the finger-shapes that were visible from the sling.  She looked down at her leg in the sling, also thickly wrapped in cast material.  Onyx had signed the cast with a heart and wishes to hurry and heal. 

Only the headmistress, Grillo, the doctor, and her parents knew that the casts were fake.  After the attack, Gauri had asked the doctor to fix it up to make it look like she still had both her arm and her leg.  At the time, Gauri had been delirious with pain and on the verge of losing consciousness, but she had insisted over and over again to the doctor that no one know she had lost her limbs.  Even now, she wasn’t exactly sure why she had been so adamant about it.  She knew that Onyx could be very emotional at times, so perhaps she had been worried about how it would have affected Onyx.  After all, the heart of their team had met a gruesome end—wasn’t that enough to deal with?  In a way, Gauri had given Onyx false-hope for recovery.  Onyx knew that she needed surgery, just not what kind or why, and Gauri had allowed that to continue.  With her head a little clearer, she now was starting to regret the cover-up, but didn’t feel like revealing her situation at the moment.  She wanted to understand herself a little better first.  Before, she had only ever thought of the death of her leader and friend.  Now, instead of turning over the death of Kale, she now focused on trying to understand why she did the things she had done at the time.  No answers were forthcoming, however.

For the first time that day, Gauri turned to look out the window.  She had requested this particular room specifically so that she could gaze upon the spot where she and Kale had spent their last moments together before the fight.  They had stayed late in the classroom that night, well past the curfew, in order to finish up some projects for some class.  Even now, Gauri could no longer remember what the project was or for what class.  They had seen a strange figure moving through the courtyard and had given chase, recognizing that it was not a student or a teacher and was definitely a suspicious person.  Every day she had looked at that spot and relived that night, turning it over and over in her mind and trying to find a way to change the past.  She had stared at that place day in and day out, remembering every detail as best she could, up until the final explosion.  Now, as she gazed down at the cobbled stonework and covered benches, she found that the memories were, for the most part, absent.  She no longer saw Kale and her walking out of the class, each holding a pile of books and laughing about the final leg of the project.  She no longer saw the black shadow of an intruder.  Instead, she saw the trees clustered around the benches, the water fountains hidden in the shade of the buildings, the tiles of the pathways, and students going about their daily lives.  There were no more waking memories.

“Damn that Bush Girl,” Gauri scowled to herself.  It seemed unfair that someone who had nothing to do with the situation had managed to lift that veil, even if briefly.  She owed that girl now, and that irked her to no extent.  But, in some odd ways, it also made her feel relieved.  It was a debt she could repay, and easily enough.

“Lunch time,” came a familiar voice from the doorway.  The Doctor had entered into the room pushing the cart that held her tray of food.  It was a sight she had not expected and took her aback.  Doctors didn’t bring in food: that was a job for interns and nurses, maybe even volunteer staff—but not doctors.

“Doctor!” Gauri said in surprise.

“Good afternoon, Gauri,” the Doctor said congenially.  “You seem much better today.”  His snow-white hair was floating in disarray around his head like a halo, his hazel-blue eyes sparkling with hidden knowledge and apparent relief.

“You seem a little unkempt today,” Gauri noted, nodding her head towards the frizzy, wild hair and purple smudges from lack of sleep under his eyes.  “Sorry for keeping you up so late.”  The Doctor smiled and pushed the cart next to her bed.  He set up the tray and laid out the meal for her, then sat down in the chair beside her and crossed his legs.

“It was worth the sleepless night,” he said.  “Everything is all set.  Are you sure you don’t want to inform your team, or at least Onyx?  She will come for you and you will suddenly be gone—she might not take it so well.”

Gauri was silent a moment.  She had thought long and hard about this, and that had been the one decision she still wasn’t completely sure about.  Telling Onyx meant at least a whole day or longer of being bombarded with questions, not to mention Onyx trying to not-so-subtle pry into what she was planning.  Was she getting the surgery?  Was she coming back?  Where was she going?  Could she come and visit?  And a million other questions—questions that she had no intention of answering because it meant a danger to her parents.  However, to leave without saying a word would mean that Onyx would be devastated.  She might assume the worst, or she might assume the best and Gauri didn’t want to give any false impressions again.  But, it was a choice between the safety of her parents or the mental wellness of her teammate and friend.  It was not an easy choice, but it was one that seemed fairly obvious.

“I know what you are thinking,” the Doctor said softly.  “Family and friends are the two hardest things to choose between.  I know you want to keep your family safe, but does it really warrant such distrust for your friends?”

Gauri frowned, her fingers closing tightly around the edge of the covers.  She scanned the surface of the blanket as if hoping to find the answer hidden in the stitches and seams of the bedding, but the faint patterns remained silent.

“My problem,” Gauri said slowly.  “Is not if I trust Onyx or not.  I know I can trust her.  My problem is the risk that this information will fall into other hands.”  She let out a soft sigh and released the blanket.  “What my parents did was treason, and they knew it.  There is a hefty bounty on their heads, and more than enough shady hunters willing to fulfill that contract.  For all I know I could be watched by some of the staff on this very campus!  I can’t risk it.  Just this conversation with you is dangerous enough for them.”

“Then might I make a suggestion,” the Doctor inquired gently.  Gauri nodded for him to continue.  “I know you have made a secure connection with your parents.  After you are safe and are sure you weren’t followed, set up a secure connection with Onyx and contact her?”

“It isn’t that simple!” Gauri sighed.  “I had established that secure line ages ago, when I had her scroll in my hand.  I would have to do the same with Onyx’s scroll.  Attempting to create a connection like that on two systems while they are far apart is almost impossible.  I need both devices in my hands…” she paused and looked at her one hand and the fake cast.  “Hand.”  She corrected herself.

“I see,” the Doctor nodded.  “All semblances have limitations, so don’t be so down about it.  I will see what I can do on my end and you will eventually think of a way to solve this problem as well.  But Gauri, she needs to know.  Her suddenly finding you gone…”

“I know, I know,” Gauri interrupted him angrily.  She was well aware of what could possibly happen, and she would love to be able to satisfy both desires.  But leaving a note meant anyone could get a hold of it.  She trusted the Doctor, the headmistress, Grillo, and Onyx.  She didn’t trust the people around them, though.  She wouldn’t risk her parents’ lives on a gamble like that.

“Is there anything you want to take with you?” the Doctor asked, rising from his seat and straightening out his white coat.

“No,” Gauri said absently.  “Nothing is worth the risk.  I can make, find, or assemble whatever I need.”  The sorrow in her voice was not missed on him.

“Very well,” the Doctor reached over and laid a hand on the shoulder just above the cast.  “It will work out, you’ll see.”

Gauri only nodded.  She knew it would work out.  She wasn’t worried about the end result.  She was just worried about what would happen between now and then.

 


	15. Finding Her Place

     Caelestis sat in a small, wooden chair with a square-framed back.  It had a plush cushion installed into the seat of the chair, making it a little more comfortable to sit in, but was bare of any carvings or adornments.  The table she sat before was large enough to sit four people, including herself, with matching chairs beside and across from her.  The room was a little smaller than the hospital room she had shared with Gauri.  It had stone walls that curved upward into a high, arched ceiling.  To the right was a small nook with pillows strewn about within it.  It was large enough for two people to sit on or one person to curl up in.  It looked far more inviting than the chair she was currently occupying.  On the other side was a large wooden structure that had several shelves full of similar, slender squarish-shaped objects that she had obtained from Corin.  There were a lot of them, some thick and some thin, some short and some tall.  The case they were stored in was taller than Onyx by at least several hand-spans, even in her heels.  Caelestis could not resist staring at the items on the shelves, wondering what they were and if they all had the same mysterious symbols in them.

     Behind her was the door.  It was a crude door cut into the rock wall and sealed there in a manner similar to the door that had prevented her from entering into the city.  It was well cared for and opened and closed with ease.  Near the door were two wall scones bolted into the stone.  Caelestis had spent several moments examining them upon entering, trying to figure out how in the world they had been attached to solid stone.  She had pulled on one to see if it would come loose, but it held fast.  Grillo had eventually told her to sit down, preventing her figuring out exactly how they had managed to penetrate something so solid.  The lights were electrical with round glass coverings that were shaded with a beige-yellow tint to prevent the light from being too bright.  These scones were two on each wall, making the room very bright and friendly despite the cold, dark stone walls.  They illuminated the ceiling above, revealing what looked like air holes that had either been there naturally prior to the creation of the room, or were installed by man much like the room had been.

     At the back of the room, directly in front of her, was Grillo.  He was standing facing a desk and organizing some papers and objects with the utmost of care.  According to Headmistress Azura, he would be questioning her to determine her academic skill (whatever that was) and knowledge.  The thought of being assessed like this had unnerved her, but the other option—going to lunch—was far more frightening to her.  She couldn’t imagine how many people were in this place, and the prospect that they _all_ gathered in the same place for lunch made her blanch.  Onyx had tried to assure her that it was staggered so that not everyone was eating at the same time, but that had just shaken her more.  There were so many people in this place that they had to designate who got to eat when so that they didn’t over-crowd the eating area.  How in the world could they survive like that?  How could they even have enough food for them all?  Did they all eat gruel or the leftovers of the elders and the sick?  It was just too crazy to imagine.

     So she had opted to take the assessment with Grillo.  Onyx had tried to follow, but Grillo had chased her off with a scowl and told her that she had better inform her other teammate about the circumstances.  Onyx had gone deathly pale and slunk away, which had caused great consternation for Caelestis.  What was it about her teammate that made Onyx afraid to explain what was happening?

     With Grillo’s back turned to her, she could now make out two long strands of some kind of blackish material tied into his ponytail and ending a little below his shoulder blades.  They were segmented, looked to be of a harder substance than his actual hair, and was about a finger’s width wide.  It was an odd thing to see, as she hadn’t noticed anything when she had first met him face-to-face.

     At the sound of a knock at the door, Grillo turned and went to open it.  He talked in a low voice with the person on the other side before taking a medium-sized box from the visitor.  After thanking the mysterious caller, he closed the door and took the box toward the table where Caelestis sat.  Caelestis sat up straighter with interest, her eyes following the box as he set it down before her.  There seemed to be various objects within as they clunked about with his movement, but he withdrew only two round, shiny red objects.

     “Apples!” Caelestis said in delight.  Was he providing a snack for her before they began?  That would have been incredibly kind if it was true, but she had a feeling that there was another purpose for the delicious-looking fruit.  He set the two before her, then pushed the box aside and stood on the other side of the table.

     “How many?” he asked simply.

     Caelestis blinked in confusion.  She looked at the apples, then at him, then back at the apples.  His hazel eyes seemed to watch her, unblinking, as he awaited her response.  Frowning, she cocked her head to consider the question.  It didn’t make any sense to her at all.  She understood the question, but it was incomplete.  She needed more information to answer it.

     “For what?” she finally asked.  Grillo blinked in surprise, completely taken aback by the question.

     “What do you mean?” he asked curiously.

     “Well, I can’t tell you how many there are unless I know what they will be used for,” Caelestis explained.

     “They are for us,” he replied after a moment’s thought.  Caelestis nodded, satisfied that she could adequately answer his question now.

     “Then there is enough,” she said proudly.  The expression upon his face caused her pride to immediately falter and wilt.  It had not been the answer he had wanted to hear, and his confused expression spoke louder than any words he might have said.  After several moments, he reached across the table and removed one of the apples.  He placed it in the box and folded his arms before him.

     “Okay, how about now?” he asked.

     “Well, then there is not enough,” she said simply.  He nodded again, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

     “I see,” he muttered more to himself.  He reached into the box and pulled out a knife.  In one swift movement, he managed to slice the apple in half, the two pieces collapsing onto the table and wobbling slightly in the aftermath of the attack.  Twirling the knife easily in his hand, he set it down with the point towards the box.

     “And now?”

     Caelestis was impressed.  She had forgotten that this society had a ready supply of metal and knives.  “Well, now there is enough again.”

     Grillo gave a small smile and nodded.  He turned to the box again and took out several apples, placing them on the table

     “How about this much?” he asked with a casual gesture to the pile of food.  Caelestis just stared for a long time at the pile of apples.  To her tribe, this would have been an amazing feast.  Apples were so hard to come by back in the forest she had lived in, and this man had just pulled out a pile of them from a box as if they by magic.  Where had they all come from?  Did apples prefer deserts instead of forests?  She was pretty sure that this was not the case, but it was the only thing that made sense to her.

     “For us?” she asked, her eyes wide.  He nodded.  “Well, then, there is too much now.”

     Grillo let out an amused chuckle before collecting the apples and placing them back into the box.  Caelestis blinked, now completely confused and a little disappointed to see the scrumptious treat vanish from sight before having had a chance to sample at least one.

     “So your people had no concept for numbers?”  It was more of a statement then a question, but Caelestis decided to respond anyways.

     “Numbers?  What are those?”

     “It is how we determine exactly how much of something there is,” Grillo explained.  “We have too many people and too many things that without knowing exactly how many we have, we cannot function.  So we count.  It is something that you will need to learn.”  Caelestis could only nod.  “I suppose you can’t read, either, then.”

     “Read?” she frowned, not understanding.

     “It is how we communicate sometimes, and how we learn,” Grillo had slipped into an instructional mode that was oddly similar to the Elder when he used to teach her lessons or explain a chore.  Grillo stood up and walked over to the shelves full of the square things that had occupied most of her interest since they had entered the room.  He pulled a random one from the shelves and brought it over to her.  Flipping it open, he revealed a page with all the strange symbols she had seen in the hospital, in Corin’s square thing, and in other places as well.  She stared in awe at the markings, drawn to them now more than ever with his explanation of their purpose.

     “We use letters to read,” he explained, pointing to an individual symbol.  “Not only do they help us learn, but they also help us to keep records of things that have happened, stories, and many other things.  They are the backbone of our society.”  He closed the book and set it aside, watching Caelestis as her eyes followed the book to the table.

     “So, these things…they have knowledge in them,” she whispered.

     “They are called books,” Grillo was smiling as he watched her.  “Some have knowledge.  Some are for entertainment.  There are many kinds that serve many different purposes.”

     “Those symbols…you called them letters?” Caelestis pulled her attention back to Grillo reluctantly as the realization came over her.  “They were on that …what was it…remote…Yes, that’s it.  They were on that remote that turned on and controlled the television.”

     “That’s right,” Grillo nodded.  “As I said, letters and reading are extremely important.  We can explain how to do something without being there, we can pass on information regardless of if we can speak or not, and many other things.”

     Slowly, Caelestis reached out a hand and caressed the hard cover of the book before her.  She wanted to open it and explore these letters, to learn what this book had to say.  It was slowly becoming an obsession for her, and she hadn’t even started.  To have knowledge and information so readily available, it was like a dream come true for her.  And then…

     “Corin…” her said in a low, almost inaudible whisper.

     “I’m sorry, what did you say?” Grillo asked, leaning forward.

     “Oh…nothing…sorry,” Caelestis replied quickly.  She withdrew her hand from the book.  “When can I learn these…letters?”

     “Oh, that and numbers are a priority for you,” Grillo informed her.  “In order to make it through this city, you need those.  Once you have those down, you should be able to start learning on your own as well as with the help of other teachers.”  Grillo was smiling.  He seemed to be very pleased with her reaction and her desire to learn.  He took up the book and went over to replace it on the shelf.  After that, he returned to the table and took up the box.  “For now, you should get some lunch.  We will begin some basics later this afternoon to get you started.  We will have to teach you about some of the history of the city as well as what the rest of the world looks like, so your plate is going to be pretty full.  On top of that, there will be training in the use of your aura and fighting.”  During this time, he had collected the box of items and was moving it to the back of the room where the desk was.

     “Fighting…?” Caelestis shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the mention of the word.  “Um…I can’t do that.”

     Grillo paused with the box now on the desk and turned to face her, his eyebrows lifted in surprise.  “Why not?”

     “Because…” Caelestis paused, a lump of shame rising in her throat as readily as a sob.  The thought of mentioning her tribe again was too much, especially after that long discussion with the headmistress of the school.  She pushed the emotion aside and attempt to finish her sentence.  “My people said I couldn’t fight…they tried to teach me and I always failed.”  She almost hadn’t finished the sentence, the last word lost in a strangled whimper.

     Grillo pushed the box so that it was firmly in place on the top of the desk, then walked back over to the table.  He took a seat opposite her and folded his hands on the wooden surface of the table, leaning forward to look at her more closely.  Caelestis tilted her face downward to make it more difficult to see the shame and feeling of loss that clouded her eyes, her hands folded neatly in her lap.  She could still see the disapproving face of the strongest warrior of her tribe as she failed to keep up with the scouting party, doubled over from coughing because of exertion.  He had scolded her angrily, accusing her of attempting to lure the Grimm and other predators and not putting forth her full effort.  The Elder had later reprimanded him for his words to her, but the damage had been done.  Caelestis swallowed back another lump, blinking her eyes fiercely to prevent a tear from slipping down her cheek.

     “They were wrong,” Grillo said softly.  It was more the sound of his voice that caused her to look up at him in surprise then the actual words.  It had been so tender and full of a mixture of sympathy and regret.  “Your people only knew one way, so they could not see your true potential.  You can fight, Caelestis.  I promise you.”

     “But how?” Caelestis croaked, the tear finally slipping from between her lashes and leaving a wet, glistening trail down her dry cheek.  “If I run, I cough or can’t breathe.  I could barely walk up the stairs.  How can I fight?”  She reached up and angrily brushed away at the tear that had betrayed her.  The last thing she wanted to do was to give herself false hope, to believe that she could do what her people had always held in the highest of esteem.  To be able to become a warrior, to fight the Grimm, was the greatest honor amongst her people, and it was one of her greatest desires within her heart.  The Grimm had taken everything from her and she wanted desperately to avenge herself and her people, but had dismissed the wish as an impossible dream.  Now, this man was saying she could do it.  She wanted with all her heart to believe him, but her experiences told her otherwise.

     “We call them mages,” Grillo said, keeping his voice soft and calm.  He was no longer a teacher.  His demeanor had softened, his shoulders relaxed, and his brows knitted together in concern.  “Perhaps your people called them shamans, or healers, or something similar.”  Caelestis nodded, wiping at another tear before wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to find comfort.

     “Yeah,” she managed, somehow keeping her voice steady.  “Shamans.  The Elder, he was going to teach me.  But they don’t fight.  They heal.  They guide.”

     “Not so.  Shamans can be great warriors, sometimes more than the one with the sword.  Had he already started before the…” he hesitated a moment, as if fearing to even mention what she seemed anxious to avoid.  “Before the incident?”

     “A little, I think,” Caelestis nodded.  “He told me to sit and think.  Then to not think, but to feel.”  She frowned, frustrated that she could not adequately describe the lessons she was referring to.  “And sometimes I felt something.  And sometimes I didn’t.  But I didn’t understand what he wanted me to do.  He did say he kenned that I could be Shaman.”

     “Good,” Grillo gave a small, reassuring smile.  “That is why you have been able to do the things you have done so far.  He must have unlocked your aura without either of you realizing it.”  Caelestis didn’t understand, but she nodded anyways.  “We know how to train mages—shamans—to fight.  They don’t fight like warriors.  They fight in their way, and we will help you figure that out.”

     “Then…” Caelestis was trying hard not to hope too much, but the light was there, in her heart.  She was beginning to truly believe that she could honor her people and follow her dreams.  For the first time in her life, it was beginning to look like she would have a real chance at doing what she wanted to do and being somebody rather than nobody.  “I really can fight?”

     Grillo nodded.  “But for now, you need to get some food and prepare yourself for the days ahead.  It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.”

     Caelestis managed a wane, hopeful smile as she rose to her feet.  She paused and turned to look at the shelves holding all those books.  As she was contemplating those mysterious pages of knowledge, she absently reached up to touch the crystal that no longer hung around her neck.  It had been an absent movement, one well-practiced ever since she had received it from her elder.  She often used the movement as reassurance or when she was thinking, and to find her fingers touching nothing but air was disconcerting.  Awkwardly, she dropped her hand to her side.

     “Thank you, Professor Grillo,” Caelestis said, remembering her manners.  He nodded, already turning to the assorted boxes that were sitting on the desk.  Most likely, he was preparing for their first official session.  Caelestis turned and left the room through the narrow doorway.  The hall outside was a long stretch of stone and identical doors running down both sides of the corridor.  It was fairly well lit with lights set in wall scones similar to the ones in the room.  The hall itself was narrow.  If she raised her arms straight out from her sides, she would find that her wrists would touch the walls rather than her fingertips.  When they had entered, Grillo had explained that the purpose was to discourage fighting in the study area.  The rooms in this section were only for academic studies and projects.  Smaller rooms up front were designated for everyday studies and discussions, whereas larger rooms dedicated to more intricate and intense projects were located further back.  Upon her inquiry, Grillo had attempted to explain what a project was, but it had merely left her more confused.  He had settled on saying that it was like a chore that the students do, but he had seemed dissatisfied with that comparison.

     As Caelestis began her journey down the hall towards the exit, her eyes wandered over the doors and light scones in wonder.  She still couldn’t possibly imagine how they could have made such a place in solid stone.  On a whim, she stopped and turned to face a door.  She had not taken the time to examine them earlier, and was a little curious as to their makeup.  The doors were all the same dingy yellow hue, a contrast to the dark stone around them.  They appeared to be made of metal and were narrower than other doors she had seen.  As she examined the seams that connected the door before her to the wall, she noticed a flat, metallic disc slightly protruding from the center of the door.  It was welded onto there and was about as wide as her palm.  On it were the mysterious symbols that Grillo had mentioned.  She leaned in close, examining the symbols. They had somehow been engraved into the metal, the grooved letters painted black on the inside.  Curiously, she touched the indented letters and traced their shape.  The first shape was fairly easy.  It went down at a slant from left to right, then immediately up at a similar slant from left to right.  It repeated this patter again, making her feel like she was drawing upside-down mountains.  She pulled back, wondering what the symbol meant and how it connected to the others.  She wanted to learn these secrets immediately, especially since Grillo had seemed to place so much importance on it.

     Reluctantly, Caelestis pulled herself away from the mysterious letters and continued her journey towards the exit.  Within moments, she was soon pushing open the larger entrance and stepping into a blast of hot air.  The contrast of the cool, cave-like halls and the arid, sand-ridden hot air of the outside took her breath away briefly.  She hated the climate here.  It always felt like her lungs were being rubbed raw when she took a breath.  While the inside of the hall had been fairly well lit, it was in no comparison to the blazing, unhindered sun of the sky.  She blinked at the sudden brightness, squinting her eyes to look around the courtyard for her guard and guide.  Onyx was sitting on a nearby bench that sat under an awning, fumbling with the device she called a scroll as she waited for Caelestis and Grillo to finish.  Upon seeing Caelestis, she immediately jumped up to her feet, shoving the device into a smaller version of the bag Caelestis had inherited from Corin, and ran over to greet her.

     “How did it go?” she demanded immediately.

     “Your people have many secrets I must learn,” Caelestis replied.

     “Don’t worry,” Onyx grinned.  “I’ll help you out.  It isn’t as bad as it might seem.” 

     Caelestis didn’t get a chance to respond because her stomach had decided at that moment to make itself known.  Onyx giggled and grabbed Caelestis’ arm, pulling her on towards the same door they had come through earlier.  It was just a few paces away from the entrance to the study, Caelestis noted with relief.  She wanted out of this sun and wind.

     They were just about to put their hand on the knob, when an anxious voice called out Caelestis’ name.  As one, they turned to the sound and were both surprised to see a red-faced Don running at high-speed towards them.  He was waiving a hand wildly in the air to catch their attention.  Even from this distance, Caelestis could see the sweat pouring from his face in rivulets.  His shirt was soaked with sweat around the collar and arms.  When he finally reached them, he came to an abrupt halt and doubled over with his hands on his knees, gasping desperately for breath.  A large piece of some kind of paper was in his hand.  It was rolled into a cone shape, preventing her from seeing what might be inside. 

     “Don, what are you doing here?” Onyx asked in surprise.  “Why in the world did you run here in this heat---you could have collapsed or something!”

     “I know,” Don said between gulps of air.  “I didn’t want to miss you.”  He forced himself to straighten with obvious difficulty and pulled out a handkerchief from his pants pocket.  He scrubbed at his face vigorously to remove the sweat and then tucked it back into the pocket.  “I did take the lift, though,” he added with a shudder.

     “Why the mad-dash?” Onyx repeated her question.  “You know she has to visit the hospital a couple of more times.”

     “I wanted to talk to her now,” he insisted.  “It is important!”  Onyx raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing.

     “Well, here she is,” Onyx gestured to Caelestis.  “I can move away if you like…”  Onyx paused a moment, eying Don up and down.  Her eyes halted on the package he was carrying, and the disapproving look on her face was replaced with a sudden knowing grin.  “Or maybe you would like _more_ privacy?”  She gave Don a wink that somehow managed to add more shades of red to his countenance and gestured to the study hall Caelestis had just left.

     “No—it’s not like that or anything…” he faltered, seeking refuge from Onyx’s astute gaze.  “I…um…”  Caelestis looked from Don to Onyx with a blank, uncomprehending look upon her face.  She could make neither heads nor tales of their cryptic dialogue and felt suddenly out of place in their secret discussion. 

     “What are you two talking about?” Caelestis asked.  With a start, Don snapped the rolled paper behind his back and stood as straight as a board.  His lower lip trembled, he was so nervous.

     “I…uh…um…how…how is the inhaler?” he asked uncertainly.  Caelestis gave a questioning look before Onyx relieved her ignorance by indicating the casing she had given her earlier.

     “Oh, it works great!  I didn’t know that there was medicine that could help me with my breathing and cough,” Caelestis said, genuinely appreciative of the advanced medicine she had received.  Don sagged with relief, the tension in his shoulders lessening ever so slightly.

     “I’m glad,” he said.  “I knew it was just what you needed.  I had to convince the nurse to give her this one over another one.  She was too angry with me to listen to me, even though she knows I am never wrong in that.”  It was obviously something that he prided himself on, and it showed with a slight puff of his chest and the return of his cheeky, jubilant smile.

     “Is that all you wanted?” Onyx asked with a sly grin.  Immediately, Don’s confidence faltered and he wilted back into his nervous slump.

     “No, no,” he stuttered.  “I…um…you see….” He sucked in his lower lip, his eyes darting right and left as if expecting some saint to suddenly appear and save him from his self-imposed predicament.  He lifted up his free hand and gazed at his palm for several moments before his face crumpled and he let out a cry of distress.

     “It’s gone!  It’s…no, no…not now!  I…um…” His expression became wild with fear.  He took an involuntary step backwards as if preparing to run.

     “What’s that behind your back,” Onyx asked, leaning around to try and see the object he had tried desperately to keep hidden.  There was a slight, mischievous glint in her glittering eyes and a playful smile across her lips.  Don took another step back as if to prevent her from seeing what he held.  “Oh, come on, Don.  You obviously brought a gift for Caelestis.  Give it to her already!”

     The direct command had taken him off guard.  His own face lit up in astonishment as his hand shot forward of its own accord, presenting the curiously wrapped gift and to Caelestis.  Wrapped up in the paper, slightly wilted from the unforgiving heat of the desert, were three long-stemmed roses.  They were blood-red and fully blossomed, the soft fragrance of the flowers wafting across the short distance to her nose.  Caelestis looked at the roses uncertainly.  She took in his overly nervous demeanor, and then suddenly flushed in embarrassment.

     “I…I can’t take something like this,” Caelestis stammered.  Don looked crestfallen upon her words.  “It’s not that I don’t like you.  You are a good guy and all, but…”

     “He isn’t proposing to you,” Onyx interjected suddenly.

     “What!?”  Don sputtered.  “NO!  I just…”  At this point, Caelestis was positive that he was going to turn into a crab; his face was so beat red that it looked more painful than the sunburn she had suffered.

     “So this is just to congratulate her on being let out of the infirmary?” Onyx prompted innocently.

     “Well…um…yes…um…no…um kinda…” Don groaned at his own inability to articulate what he wanted to say.  Gently, Caelestis took the package from his hands and cradled it in her arms as if it was made of the most fragile glass.

     “I think I understand,” Caelestis said with a warmhearted smile.  “I told you before not to worry about it.”  It was a soft reprimand with a little bit of humor behind it.

     “I know, Miss Caelestis, I know,” he sighed.  “I just wanted you to understand why.  I had it all written out, what I was goin’ to say.  I didn’t want your forgiveness without your understanding, you see.”  Caelestis’ eyes went wide for a moment.

     “Written?  You mean…with letters?” she asked in astonishment.  Don frowned in confusion.

     “Yeah….” He said slowly.

     “You can write on your hands?  Letters can do that?” she was stunned by this revelation.  She had only just learned how important these letters were, but she had not realized that they could be used for everyday situations and scenarios like these, or even applied like war paint or tattoos.  She had just thought it meant things like those scrolls or long-distance situations.  This new possibility for letters seemed like a magical revelation to her.  Instead of rehearsing what you wanted to say over and over again, you could just write it out with these words and have it ready for you.  Well, assuming it didn’t vanish liked what appeared to have happened to Don.  It made her interest in these unknown symbols more profound.  She suddenly didn’t want to eat anymore: she wanted to get started learning the language and symbols of this culture immediately.  The thought of having access to words and letters partially distracted her from Don’s predicament, and she had to force herself to return her attention to the present.

     “I wish…Well, I want to …” he faltered yet again, thrusting his hands into his pockets in frustration.  He kicked a loose stone across the courtyard and mumbled something under his breath.

     “You’re as bad as my brother!” Onyx scolded.  She turned to Caelestis, her patience apparently at an end as she launched into a short summary of what Don was trying to say.  “He wants you to know that what he did was not intentional.  He obviously sucks at interacting with people, and he knows it.  He wanted to use his own words to explain his situation, but he always gets tongue-tied in situations like these.  Is any of this right, Don?”  She turned her attention to him, her inky-black hair tumbling over her shoulders as she cast a glance over her shoulder to him.  Caelestis inwardly flinched at her blunt take-over of the situation, but despite her impatience during the explanation, her tone had immediately softened when she turned to confirm to Don.  She seemed to be very familiar with this kind of scenario, given the mention of her brother.

     “Y-ye-yes,” he stumbled over the word, both in surprise at the succinct summary and an obvious disappointment that he had not been the one to state it himself.

     “Like I said, just like my brother and about two of my sisters,” Onyx sighed.  “Look, Don—I get your desire to do this yourself, but you can’t walk before you run.  You need to start a bit smaller.”  She laid an encouraging hand on his shoulder.

     “But I wanted to do this one specifically,” he whispered dejectedly.  Onyx gave his shoulder a little shake until he looked up at her.

     “Look, Don,” she said frankly.  “It took my older sister several years of practice before she could bring herself to bring up anything even remotely as personal as this.  With a loud, rambunctious family like mine, it is easy for the shy and quiet personalities to struggle with this kind of thing.  Don’t get discouraged—you’ll get there, and then you can use your own words.  Something this important to yourself should be worked up to with smaller, less important stuff.  Understand?”  Don nodded his head slowly, but he still seemed to not recover from the failure.  “Well, fine.  How about this---who do you prefer to get advice from—a boy or a girl?  I know people can be fussy about things like that…”

     “How many brothers and sisters do you have?” Caelestis asked suddenly.  She wanted to use the same question Grillo had so that she could see how it was properly replied to.  Onyx blinked in surprise, and then put a finger to her chin in thought.

     “Just blood, or is non-blood okay?” she asked.  Caelestis shrugged, indicating that either was fine.  “Somewhere around thirteen.  I guess my family is similar to your tribe: even if we aren’t blood, we’re still related.”  When she caught Caelestis’ non-comprehending look, she held up both her hands with her fingers splayed.  Don jumped in and held up three more of his fingers.  “This many—not including me.” 

     “Living?” Caelestis asked in surprise.

     “Of course!  A little less than half are blood-related,” she grinned.  “I will bring you to meet them some day—they will love you!”  And she turned back to Don to discuss setting up a meeting between one of the previously mentioned siblings at a time convenient to him.  Caelestis, out of politeness, tuned them out and just kind gazed around the courtyard until they were done.  Don was finally standing a little straighter, though he was still a little nervous.

     “I promise,” he said in a shaky voice.  “I promise that I will tell you myself.”  He held out his hand towards her.  Caelestis extended her own hand, copying his pose because she thought it was some kind of signal of a promise.  Without warning, Onyx pushed Caelestis’ hand into Don’s.  Don closed his fingers around her hand and gently shook her hand up and down.  “Deal.”  He said.  He held her hand just a moment longer, then released it and took two steps back.

     “I will see you again, Don!” Caelestis said with a friendly smile, still not completely certain of what had just happened.  It wasn’t an experience she had ever witnessed before, let alone experienced herself.

     “Yeah,” he mumbled.  He took another step back, then another.  He tipped his fore and middle fingers to his forehead and swept it forward in a short salute, then turned on his heels and practically dashed off toward where Caelestis assumed the lift was.  Caelestis watched him go, completely baffled.

     “He liiiikes you!” Onyx teased, elongating the second word with amusement and giving Caelestis’ shoulder a jovial push.

     “What!?” Caelestis gaped.

     “Did you see how red he was?  He is smitten!” Onyx chuckled in amusement.

     “He was running in this heat!” Caelestis protested.

     “And who in their right mind would do that if they _weren’t_ interested?” Onyx retorted.  “C’mon, it’s cute, isn’t it?”

     Caelestis didn’t answer.  While she didn’t see anything wrong with Don, the last thing on her mind was anything that even remotely related to romantic relationships.  She honestly couldn’t believe that this was the case and hoped that Onyx was misinterpreting what had happened.

     “Well, think what you will,” Onyx shrugged.  “We should get you some food and then get started on your studies, right?”  Caelestis nodded.  Onyx had already turned her towards the door and was opening it to lead the way to the cafeteria.  Caelestis glanced at the roses Don had given her, now worried that having accepted them had given him the wrong impression.  She had no idea what kind of courtships they had going in this society, and she didn’t want to unintentionally mislead anyone.  She sighed and fell in line behind Onyx.  Onyx had not seemed to take it as anything that serious.  Caelestis was sure that if she had, she would have intervened.  That alone gave her reassurance, and she pushed the whole thing from her mind to prepare for the future.


	16. Up on the Roof

    Across the city, a low keening wind skittered through the almost-empty streets, carrying with it a skirt of billowing sand.  Off on the horizon, the source of the coarse, grainy wind could be seen growing rapidly across the sands on its journey towards the slumbering buildings.  The slowly growing storm had already reached high enough to block out the dying rays of the sun, throwing the city into an early night.  The few people left on the sidewalks glanced nervously to the skies before hurrying on their way to the safety of their homes, leaving the streets empty and silent.

     Perched upon the roof of the western dormitories of the academy, a young huntress sat alone, gazing at the impending storm with disinterest.  One leg dangled lazily over the edge of the ledge while the other was braced against her chest.  Her amber eyes glared out at the distant horizon as if willing the storm to come faster.  Absently, she clutched the neck of a bottle in one hand, the bottle itself almost completely concealed by a plain, brown paper bag.  In her mind, she was comparing herself to the raging storm.  Each gust of wind that carried with it the dangers of the sands and debris seemed to mirror the blustering emotions that battered at her own soul.  She hardly felt the grains of sand that stung at her face, the wind tossing her silky, straight hair out behind her like a banner.  As an afterthought, she released her leg and pressed her free hand onto her top-hat to prevent it from flying into the darkness behind her.  The wind was so strong that it had been threatening to tear the accessory from her head since she had come up to the roof.

     Stav did not care about the dangerous storm that was brewing.  Unlike her fellow peers, she had ignored the warnings of the faculty to remain indoors and had taken up her favorite perch on the ledge.  For the last couple of days, she had chosen this spot as her refuge to avoid coming into contact with the loathsome stray, Caelestis.  She refused to enter the rooms with that woman present, and had gone to great lengths to avoid her.  At the same time, she was extremely curious about this visitor and her purpose.  To Stav, she was nothing more than an accomplished con-artist, a great actress with less than altruistic intents.  Onyx had been completely taken in by the act, as had several teachers, including Grillo and the headmistress, Azura.  The fact that someone in such a high position of authority could be so easily deceived had disappointed Stav.  She had had hopes that the people in charge of training the next generation of hunters would not be so stupid.  Now Stav found herself faced with the task of removing the mask that this Caelestis had donned.  She wanted nothing more than to reveal her true nature to those that had been deceived.  Recent rumors had arisen to collaborate with her suspicions, and she was now waiting for a chance to act upon them.  All she needed was a single word or action that could throw everything into her favor.

     Casually, Stav glanced at her scroll to check that it was still active.  The numbers on the screen were ticking forward, showing the length of the call she had initiated with Kale’s scroll hidden in the room.  It had been a stroke of genius on her part, really.  She had wanted to eavesdrop on their conversations in the hopes of gaining some hint as to what Caelestis’ goal was, but had not wanted to be present in the room.  She had realized that she could use Kale’s scroll to act as a bug in the room by just initiating a call to it.  How it was that Kale had forgotten her scroll in the room on that fateful day was never determined, but no one had come to claim the device and so Stav had kept it as a reminder of her lost friend.  The idea of hiding it in the room had worked out quite smoothly, allowing her to listen in without being detected.  She had carefully placed the scroll on the shelf between two books so that the light of the device would not be detected, yet the microphone was clear to pick up any sounds.  The down side was that anything she said or did could also be heard, but she had found a way around that by merely covering her own microphone on her scroll.  Their conversations had been boring the first couple of days, but she never gave up hope that Caelestis would let something slip about her purpose.

     At the moment, the room was empty and silent.  Stav didn’t doubt they would arrive soon, but the waiting was wearing on her patience.

     A sudden movement on the streets below caught Stav’s keen eyes.  With the emptiness of the streets and the impending storm, any such movements would easily catch her attention as something unusual.  At first, she couldn’t make out what it was because of the sands and dim light, but her sharp eyes finally fell upon a small bundle of cloth that was making its way along the shadow of the wall that surrounded the ground level entrance of the school.  Whoever it was, they were bundled up in a thick cloak held tightly about them, making it hard to distinguish if the person was male or female.  The movement they made was a quick, scurrying movement, the kind that caught your attention because it seemed to flash in the corner of your eye.  As the odd figure moved through the shadows, Stav traced its path and was surprised to see that it seemed to lead to a man who had been standing at the corner since Stav had entered out onto the roof.  Stav watched the two with interest.  The man who was standing at the corner was a Faunus with thick curling Ram-horns protruding from his head and a nice fedora hat tilted in a way to shield his eyes from the sand.  He had seemed like just about any other Faunus she had seen in her life: looking for any time or place away from the judgmental stares of the humans.  A storm was the best time for a Faunus to finish errands and enjoy a stroll since there were fewer humans on the streets.  Because of this, she had mostly ignored him up until this point, but his mysterious visitor made him a sudden point of curiosity.

     The two figures seemed to be engaged in some kind of conversation, with the bundled figure pacing within the shadows.  The man remained as he had been since she had first noticed him, leaning against the lamppost with one foot braced against the base.  Every now and then, Stav could make out movement that might have indicate that he was speaking, but it was hard to tell from that distance.  As Stav watched the two interact, she began to feel uneasy.  It wasn’t that long ago that an intruder had made their way into the school and ruined her life.  Who was to say these two didn’t have some connection with that incident?  Perhaps they were planning a second attempt or were looking to see if they could silence any possible witnesses.  Slowly, Stav shifted as if to stand and then stopped herself.  Whomever they were, they were outside the school grounds and as far as she could tell, just talking.  There was no reason to worry about them.  She forced herself to sit down again, throwing her arm tightly around her knee as before and clutching the forgotten bottle even more tightly.  She glared bitterly at the two on the street, part of her wanting to spring to her feet and challenge the two to a fight to the death while another part of her whispered calming words of reason.  Surely they must be, in some way, related to the one who had taken the life of the most important person in her life, said the first part.  The other, quieter part of herself scolded her for her paranoia.  They were probably friends, or maybe lovers meeting.  Who knew?  It was certainly none of her business.  If her ears had been as sharp as her eyes, she probably would have heard embarrassing prose of love and devotion.  Stav found herself making a face at the mere thought of it and turned her attention immediately to the bottle she had been holding, attempting to distract herself from the affair taking place on the streets below.

     “So, what’s it going to be, you idiot?” she asked herself.  She lifted up the bottle, staring at the cap that peaked out from the folds of the bag.  It was probably the final temptation for her.  Stav lowered the bottle and closed her eyes.  If she went any further, there would be no going back for her, of that she was sure.  With all her heart, she wished that Kale was standing beside her at that moment.  The young leader would have laughed that lilting, playful laugh, taken the bottle form her hands and hurled it as far away as she possible could

     “You promised, remember?” she would have said.  Stav lifted the bottle once more and stared at the plain paper bag, willing it to fly from her hands and far away.  It remained where it was, a heavy reminder of how far she had sunk into her own despair.  Yes, she had promised.  She had sworn the most binding of oaths to herself and to Kale that she would never, ever, in her life become like her father.  Ever since she had left the house and joined the school—even before that, she had promised to never let his blood taint her soul.  His temper, his cruelty, his blazing, hateful eyes: she had hoped to leave all those relics of her past behind her and set forth on a new life.  For two years, she had slowly begun to believe that she would succeed.  But now, Kale had been horrendously murdered and Stav found her only pillar of hope crumbled into the abyss.  Everything she had fought for was slowly slipping from her.  Three times, she had come close to bashing Onyx’s head in with her cane.  Twice, she had drifted towards the hospital with the explicit intent of making sure Gauri would leave wrapped in a black cloth.  There had been more times than she could count where she had willfully provoked Weylin and his team, and then there were the countless trips to the convenience store where she found herself staring at the rows upon rows of liquor and spirits.  The drink was another bane of her father’s, but her mother had often praised it as the only way to keep him out of trouble.  “Give him enough and he is too stupefied to do anything dangerous,” she had said.  At this point, Stav was willing to try it.  Her own homicidal thoughts frightened her to no end, and she had no way of preventing them.  She was her father’s daughter, of that she was certain, and she was desperate for some level of control.

     “Everything else was taken from me,” Stav hissed bitterly as she pressed her thumb against the crimped metal cap.  “The least life can let me do is try to drown it all out.  I don’t want to be like him…I don’t.”  The cap was a lot harder to remove then she had expected.  As she pressed harder and harder at the underside of the rim, she remembered belatedly her mother using some kind of bottle opener.  It had not occurred to her to look into such a device because she had never needed it before.  Even so, she was determined to follow through and continued to push until a sucking sound announced the release of the cap.  It went twirling upward and out towards the darkness, vanishing into the imported bushes below that acted as a trim to the dormitory.  A line of ruby-red droplets shimmered on the tip of her thumb in the waning, weak light of the lampposts that dotted the courtyard below.  Cursing, Stav sucked on the tip of her thumb until the bleeding stop, then looked at the opening to the bottle.

     “I promised,” Stav grumbled angrily.  She could almost feel Kale’s disapproving presence behind her with crossed arms and a scolding face.  Slowly, Stav brought the bottle up to her nose and took a quick whiff.  The acidic fumes of the fermented beverage stung at her nostrils, causing her to gag involuntarily.  She forced the bottled away from her nose, grimacing in disgust.  “How can my old man drink this stuff?”  She sat up a bit straighter as she coughed several times in an attempt to clear her airways.  Taking a deep breath, she brought the bottle to her lips and tilted her head back.  The orange liquid slid easily down her throat, warming her body instantly as it settled in her gullet.  Almost as soon as the liquor flowed into her system, Stav doubled over, hacking and coughing at the bitter, alcoholic taste.  It was the worst thing she had ever had.  Angrily, Stav forced herself up until she was standing firmly on the ledge.  She drew back the hand that held the bottle, then hurled it with all her might out towards the empty streets below.  It arced up high, fueled by her rage, and fell down towards the center of the main thoroughfare, shattering into a million pieces upon impact.  Stav was still coughing and gagging in an attempt to clear the vile taste from her mouth as she sat back down on her ledge.  She was half-tempted to induce vomiting, but decided against it.  The bottle in the street couldn’t be traced back to the school, but vomit on the roof certainly could.  The coughing unexpectedly gave way to a sob of frustration that shock her from her core and caused her to bend over, drawing both her knees to her chest.  For several moments, she rocked back and forth as the coughing sob passed through her, all thoughts wiped from her mind as the emotion completely over took her.  Words, whispered echoes of the past, filled her mind as the sob died down, and then everything went into silence.

     “So much for that idea,” she rasped, a little crestfallen at the failure.  Part of her had truly hoped that she could drown out her uncontrollable rage in the foul-tasting liquid.  The other half of her was relieved that she could keep her promise to Kale and herself.  She looked out at the street where the bottle had landed, already partially covered by sand from the storm, and then turned her attention to the corner to see if she had drawn the attention of the two people who had been meeting.  No one remained on the corner or in the shadows that were near it.  The streets were completely empty now, and the sandy winds were getting thicker and stronger.

     As she was still clearing her mouth of the experiment, a clicking sound from the scroll told her that Onyx and Caelestis had returned.  She could distinctly hear the hinges of the door as it opened, thankful that they had never bothered to oil them.  Stav immediately silenced herself and leaned forward to hear more clearly their conversation.

     “—are a lot of books tonight,” it was Onyx.  The door closed and there was the sound of a lot of things being set down on the floor.

     “I’m going to figure this out,” Caelestis said with determination.  Stav sneered at the remark.  Obviously trying to play up the ignorant tribal girl for all it was worth.  Just hearing the girl’s voice ignited a fury in Stav that she could barely suppress.  She grabbed for her cane, which she had stashed against the wall of the ledge below her, and held it tightly in both hands, wringing the hilt to try and vent out some of the sudden anger that began to flare up inside her.

     “You seem distracted, though,” Onyx said in concern.  “Is everything all right?”  Leave it to Onyx to be so caring and sisterly.  Stav rolled her eyes at the wasted energy Onyx was pouring into this false friend.

     “Actually…it’s about what happened at the cafeteria today,” Caelestis said uncertainly.  Stav leaned forward with interest.  She already knew of the rumors that were littering the school grounds.  Perhaps some students believed the rumors enough to act on them.

     “What do you mean?”  Onyx sounded uncomfortable.  Her voice was further away, giving Stav the impression that Onyx had distanced herself from Caelestis.  Obviously, she knew something but didn’t want to tell her charge about it.  Stav wondered about that for a moment, but then dismissed it as useless to her cause.

     “Well…it seemed like people were _glaring_ at me,” Caelestis said in a hushed voice.  “And that person tripped me.  It wasn’t an accident!”  Stav gave a triumphant smile.  She had been right, then.  The rumors were severe enough that _someone_ would have responded by now.  She was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner.  The worst of the rumors connected Caelestis to the White Fang.  It was pretty detailed, and, as far as Stav was concerned, the most accurate one.  Her timing was just too perfect, given the attack a couple of months ago and the heightened activity of the White Fang in recent times.  It was just so obvious!  Stav could kind of understand how Onyx would miss something so obvious: she was a trusting, free soul who tended not to think things through very well.  What Stav could never comprehend was how the headmistress herself could overlook something as important as this.  Here was a direct link to Kale’s murderer, and she was treating her like an orphan girl!  Stav gritted her teeth so hard, her jaw began to ache.

     “Don’t be ridiculous,” Onyx said with a nervous laugh.  Why was she so nervous?  Was she worried about the truth?  Did she know even half the rumors going on around this girl?

     “He leaned back and stuck his foot out right as I was walking,” Caelestis snapped angrily.  “He was looking to hurt me!”

     “Look—let’s just focus on the assignments Grillo gave you,” Onyx said.  “Don’t worry about the others.  They will get over it.”

     Stav nodded to herself.  So she knew about the rumors, and she was trying to protect this trickster.  Poor, stupid, innocent Onyx.  The conversation began to drift off to discussions of reading, writing, and basic arithmetic: boring basics that Stav had no interest in.  That was the most information that she was going to get, and the severity of the storm would make it more difficult block.  It was time to head for some shelter and think about what she was going to do next.  Stav reached for her scroll just as another large gust of wind buffeted against her, knocking her backwards a little.  She barely managed to maintain her seat upon the ledge and threw an angry curse at the storm.

     Already, visibility was becoming diminished to the point where she could not even see the lamppost the male Faunus had stood at.  Grumbling about the inconvenience of the storm, Stav allowed herself to turn on her seat and bring both of her legs onto the roof.  She slipped down off the ledge and pressed herself against the ledge, using it as a temporary shield against the assaulting wind and sand.  At this point, she could not turn off her scroll lest the disconnect noise draw their attention.  Instead, she tucked it into her inner pocket and sat in a tight, curled position.  Even though she knew that now was the best time to get back into the building, she hesitated.  She was still angry at just having heard that hooligan’s voice.  Knowing that she was so close to Kale’s bed and possessions infuriated her more, and she was almost certain that Onyx was loaning the wretch Kale’s clothing.  Just the mere thought of that sun-burnt troglodyte defiling the wardrobe of their kind and gentle leader made her see blood.  Angrily, she cursed Gauri for not doing her job to protect Kale, and she cursed the intruder who took Kale’s life.  She cursed fate and the headmistress, then she cursed the storm yet again.  When all of her best curses were used up, she fell into muttering under her breath over and over again about how unfair fate had been.  The roller coaster of emotion made it difficult for her to focus.  She needed to calm herself so that she could think of her next steps, but she was finding it extremely difficult.  The muffled voice of Onyx and the trickster kept pricking at her ears, inflaming the anger before it had time to cool.

     In desperation, Stav reached for her scroll and then stopped herself.  It had been her custom to pull up an old image of Kale, smiling and happy, to calm herself in these moments.  It usually worked, but in this case, she could not do it.  The operation of the phone was pretty simple: look at pictures or talk on the phone.  It wouldn’t let you do both, and now Stav was infuriated at finding herself trapped between her genius idea and her uncontrollable emotions.  Why had she done something as stupid as making it impossible for her to access her only form of sanity?  All for what?  Some idealized hope of protecting the last, pure member of her team?  What team?  As far as Stav was concerned, they were disbanded and had no obligation to each other or the school.  She should just leave Onyx to suffer the consequences of her ignorance, and maybe laugh about it later.

     Stav wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged herself tightly, rocking back and forth to try and comfort herself.  It didn’t help, and her bulky, Amazonian frame made small parts of her a target for the storm, despite the ledge she was crouched behind. 

Her thoughts immediately took a dramatic turn, tumbling away from blood-thirsty rage to unbridled self-loathing.  She wanted to make herself fit fully behind the ledge, but her bulk would not allow it.  It was one of the many things she had hated about herself.  She was too tall to be a proper female, at least as far as she was concerned, and too foul-mouthed to be concerned feminine in any sense of the word.  Her hair would be a tangled mess later and would take hours to straighten out, and…and…

“Stop, stop, stop”, Stav whispered to herself fiercely.  “It isn’t that bad…not any more…”  She tried to recall when she had learned to stop hating herself so much.  It must have been when she had met Kale for the first time two years ago.  When she had first seen Kale, Stav had immediately dismissed her as some crazy punk who enjoyed freaking out little old ladies.  No one in their right mind would have that many piercings and tattoos.  To everyone’s surprise, Kale had turned out to be one of the most gentle of souls you could meet.  She had been the first and only one to accept Stav, despite her horrifying secrets.  It had been on that day that Stav had become fiercely devoted to her.  And now she was gone and Stav was alone with no one to accept her for what she was and would be.  There was no way that Gauri or Onyx could ever accept her as easily as Kale had.  Their reaction would be pretty much be the same as Weylin’s reaction had been.  To this day, Stav still wasn’t sure how Welyin had figured out her secret, but he had and he had been merciless to her ever since.  Kale was the only one who had the heart to forgive her evils and embrace her faults.  There was no one else.  There never had been before and there never would be again.

     A piece of metal clanked roughly against the side of the building, shaking her out of her thoughts and drawing her attention to the impending storm that was raging around her.  She would have to get inside, and fast, or she might well end up in the same hospital room as Gauri.  Shuddering, she rolled forward on her hands and knees and kept her body low to the ground as she made her way towards the service entrance in the middle of the roof.  It was barely visible in the winds and sands, the small emergency lights having kicked in along the edges of the building to offer minimal guidance.  As she crawled, the wind snagged viciously at her hair, pulling her hat from her head and knocking it forward several feet.  Madly, she reached out to grab it, and was barely able to snatch the rim before it could be whisked away by the storm.  She hugged the hat to her chest with the same hand that grasped her cane, and continued making her way towards the entrance, half-blinded by the stinging sands.

     It was a long crawl, each second feeling like an hour before she finally slammed the heavy door shut behind her.  The silence in the small stairwell was deafening after the howling wind of the sand storm that was building up in intensity. 

     Stav stood there in the silence, shaking out her jacket and hair and dusting the sands off of her trousers and hat.  Once she felt like worst of it had been brushed off, she put her hat on her head and checked that her cane was held high enough to avoid clanking on the stairs.  As she began walking down the stairs, she became aware of the inane chatter of the two girls in their dorm room again.  Onyx was explaining what a sand storm was to Caelestis.  She was really in her element, describing the raging winds and the different theories about where these types of storms came from.  Caelestis seemed to be listening raptly, gasping in surprise every now and then when the story warranted.

     In annoyance, Stav took out a kerchief from her other pocket and pulled the scroll from the inner one.  She began wrapping the speaker tightly with the kerchief in an attempt to muffle the hated voice on the other end.  It took two kerchiefs before she felt satisfied that she would not hear much more for the rest of the night.  Setting her hat firmly upon her head, Stav began to descend down the stairs towards the nearest empty room on the top floor of the dormitory, a discovery she had found by pure chance and took full advantage of.


	17. The Big Heist

     Alone in her office, Lily paced slowly in front of the broad window that overlooked the room set aside for the artifact.  Her tale hung low, swishing to and fro in time with each even step.  She was clad in a thick, leather body suit that was closely fitted to her form, yet loose enough to allow ease of movement.  Her hair was tied back into a tightly fitted bun at the nape of her neck so that it would be easy to put on her gas mask that was lying on the table.  Even her tail was wrapped with some light-weight, protective material.  Each step she took came with a dull _clomp_ sound from the steel-toed combat boots she word, echoing as she paced around the chamber and adding to her irritation.  Why wasn’t Tarian back yet?  The storm was quickly escalating and their window of opportunity would be short enough as it is.  What had possessed him to take care of an “important errand” at this time, of all times?

     Lily gave a huff of frustration and walked away from the window and back towards her desk.  She picked up her full-face gas mask.  It was light-weight and would help protect her eyes from the sand and debris as well as filter the air she breathed.  Just as she was about to slip it on, the click of the door sliding open signaled an arrival. 

     “You’re late!” Lily snapped as she hurled her mask towards the visitor.  Tarian had just stepped through the door, but his hand immediately shot up to catch the mask just before it collided into his face.  Without breaking his stride, he made his way towards the desk and set the mask down before Lily.

     “I am not late,” he said calmly.  “I am right on time.”

     “You still have to change!” Lily retorted angrily.

     “I will meet you down in the hangar.  There is plenty of time,” Tarian repeated in his calm, deep voice.

     Lily opened her mouth to reprimand him about his duties to herself and the organization then closed it without saying anything.  He _was_ barely on time, and it wouldn’t take him that long to change: she knew that.  So technically, he wasn’t late.  She wanted to scold him, but could not see a justification to it.

     “I hate when you do this!” she scowled at him.  She snatched up her mask and began a short march to the door, her tail twitching furiously to show her agitation.

     “Lily,” Tarian called after her.  She paused at the door, but did not turn to face him.  “It will be fine.”

     Part of her wanted to scream at him for such insolence.  She wanted to demote him to kitchen staff and have him scrub out the pots and pans after dinner, then have him run janitorial services.  How _dare_ he presume to calm her!  It was none of his business.  His job was to follow orders, not try to placate her with soothing words as if she were some child.  All of these thoughts flashed through her mind in a torrent of irritation and frustration, while at the same time, a calmer her and more reasonable part of her scolded her for her childishness.  He was right, she knew.  She was merely nervous about this mission.  It was a one-chance run, and it could mean the success of everything she had worked for her entire life.  She was more than nervous, really: she was terrified.  Tarian’s job was to recognize her irritations and nervousness and bring her back to focus, and he was always able to do so—even with words as simple as “It will be fine.”  He was right.  It would be fine.  Everything would go without a hitch, and they would be one step closer to bringing the humans to their knees.

     “I know that,” Lily finally said.  “Just hurry up.  This is our only chance.”

     She stepped out of the room without waiting for a reply and hurried through the maze of halls to the hangar were the recruits awaited.  The steel walls, floor, and ceiling gave a cold, impersonal feeling to their hideout.  It often made her feel like she was in a penitentiary of some kind, but it served as a useful base for their operation.  The warehouse they had chosen was built into the far side of the cliff and the original wall that embraced the city.  The old building was a honeycomb of halls and rooms, some larger than the hangar where the plane awaited, and others smaller than a closet.  Squall’s favorite perch was one of the rare sections of the building that jutted out from the cliff, miles above the ground below.  Lily had originally chosen the warehouse because of its isolated location and forgotten existence, but it later revealed to be an ideal location for this mission as it was near to the side of the academy which held the artifact.  To Lily, it seemed like Fate itself was cheering her on with this stroke of luck.  The journey towards the tower would be short and simple, with no one the wiser.  Afterwards, the plane could take a long route home that would not lead anyone to their location.  And Humans were generally too stupid to think to look right under their noses.

     Lily entered into the hangar to a large group of around twenty recruits, all clad in similar leather armor and holding on to gas masks.  Each was armed with their choice of melee weapons, as any projectiles would be useless due to the winds of the storm.  Some carried swords, others maces, a few had some clubs and cudgels, while others favored working more directly with their hands in a street-fighter style.  The majority of them were rookies still under training that had produced less-than desirable results.  They had all volunteered, well aware that their job was that of cannon fodder should there be any engagement with the enemy, and that this would be their one chance to prove their usefulness on the front lines.  Many of them were anxious to prove themselves for fear of being placed in support roles, such as food, cleaning, inventory, or other such menial chores.  They wanted the blood and glory of the front lines.  They were all apprehensive and talked softly amongst themselves as they await their leader.  Of the twenty, a small group of about eight stood apart from the rookies.  They were large, muscular Faunus with the eyes of experienced killers and loyal soldiers.  She had hand-selected them to work on detaching and moving the artifact from the laboratory it was stored in to the plane along with two who would double as extra help to pull more documents from the computers.  Two others had semblances that primarily focused on increasing their strength to god-like levels, while the rest were merely extremely strong due to training preferences.  Ever since she had begun to think of this plan, a few months ago, she had taken them off all other duties and gave them the job of becoming as inhumanly strong as they possibly could.  The amount of drugs and dust infusions she had pumped into their bodies for the job made it most likely that they would be useless for anything else afterwards, but they had agreed without compunction.  It had always been Lily’s way to explain explicitly what she expected of her troops and give them the chance to choose another line of work.  She rarely had anyone deny her request.

     “All right, troops,” Lily called out in a loud, commanding voice.  Silence instantly filled the hangar and every head turned to her.  When it was clear who was speaking, the rookies scattered from their groups and made a mad dash to their positions in the line.  Some gave a shaky salute as soon as they found their positions, while others stood stiffly in military fashion.  Her hand selected troops merely gave her a nod and a salute before resuming their menacing glare at the rookies.

     “The storm is reaching its peak,” Lily explained. “We will be riding in the plane to the location and you will all take your positions.  Your only goal is to keep any hunters or huntresses away from the tower.  You will give no chances and no warnings—if you see _anyone_ approach you, you shoot to kill.  There will be three detonations.  After the third detonation, you will scatter across the campus and down the back of the cliff.  You will find your own way to the rendezvous point.  Failing to meet at the appointed time, you will make your own way back to base.  If, at any time, you suspect that you might be followed, you will change your course and go elsewhere.  I don’t care where you go.  The only rule is that as long as you might pose a danger to our location, you will not return.  Is that clear?”  There were murmurs of assent, some quivering with fear as they realized that the time had finally come.  While Lily had been outlining their course, the door had slid open and Tarian had silently stepped up behind her.

     “All of you have trained hard,” Tarian said in a firm, booming voice.  “This is your chance to prove where your heart is.  If you feel fear, do not worry.  Only a fool knows no fear.  I expect to see every single one of you in training a week from today.  Remember: get in, get out.”

     “Board up,” Lily commanded.  The thud of boots and clank of metal was thunderous as everyone pulled themselves up into the hold of the plane, arranging themselves in order as Tarian had trained them.  Lily turned to face Tarian and was surprised to see that he had already fitted his gas mask into place.  He seemed to be observing his soldiers, marking their movements with a nod of his head.  Lily sighed and pulled her mask over her own face to hide her smile.  At this moment, he was in his element and she would not disturb him.

     By the time the two of them had taken their own positions on the plane, everyone had pulled their masks over their faces.  The engines of the plane roared to life, and within moments, the aircraft was plunging into the storm that had engulfed the city.  The turbulence surrounding the plane created a roller coaster of a ride for the few miles towards the tower.  Everyone gripped the hand rails, or if none was available, each other, in a desperate attempt to keep their balance as the plane dipped and rose on the winds, shaking violently with each blast of wind.  The hail of sand upon the metal sides created a deafening roar that eliminated any attempts at conversation between the troops.

     The ride through the storm felt like an eternity, but as soon as the doors to the back of the plane began to crack open, Lily felt as if the ride had lasted hardly a moment.  In teams of twos, the troops dropped through the door and into the whirling winds and sands that had made their journey so unsettling.  Lily watched them all, each leaving at intervals to fall as close to their positions as possible.  At last, only Lily, Tarian, and the muscular veterans remained in the back of the plane.  Lily watched the abstract dance of nature outside the plane as the pilot fought to bring the plane as close to the tower as possible.  A heavy hand on her shoulder caused her to look up into Tarian’s masked face.  She gave a nod, both of thanks and understanding.  This was it.  The moment she had been waiting for.

     It took longer than she had thought for the plane to finally settle beside the tower, the pilot masterfully positioning it so that the back of the plane faced the wall of the tower.  It was close enough, she figured, to the room in which the artifact was kept.  Tapping on the side of her mask, she activated the communication system and demanded status from each soldier.  All reported no signs of the enemy or any indication that they had been discovered.  Tarian’s little master spy had done well, apparently.

     “All right,” Lily said to her small group.  “Let’s get this over with.”  Together, they dashed out of the plane and to the wall of the tower.  The others took up positions along the curve of the wall to shield them both from the detonation Lily was about to initiate, and the worst of the storm.

     Lily leaned up against the wall and pressed both of her hands against the old, rock surface.  Focusing her aura into her hands, she felt it spread up along the wall.  She stretched her mind, forcing the energy to spread like vines along the rock surface until a large, circular glow filled the wall.  She remembered that the artifact was quite tall and hoped that the hole would be big enough.  With the charge set, she released her hands and dove to the side near Tarian.  He grabbed her arm as she came into reach and hauled her behind him.  For a long moment, the roar of the storm was the only sound they heard.  Then, without warning, an earth-shattering explosion rocked the ground beneath their feet.  The wall that Lily had charged erupted forward, the debris scattering into the winds while the larger portions of stones crumbled to the ground below.

     As one, the small group ran into the hole at full speed and found themselves in a large laboratory.  The stone facade on the outside had given way to the stronger materials of steel and brick on the inside, with bent iron supports jutting out among the edges of the circular hole Lily had created.  Upon entering the dark room, the sounds of the storm had immediately diminished and only small gusts of wind and sand eddied into the room through the hole.  The room was dimly illuminated by the light from the back of the plane, which had been turned on upon the first signal.

     “There it is,” Lily said as they stepped towards the center of the room.  The room itself was circular, the walls lined with computers, tubes, pipes, and wires.  In the center of the room was a large, artifact that almost touched the ceiling.  Its glossy surface reflected back the light, revealing it to be a quilt-work pattern of dust crystals woven or melded together to form a large crystal cage.  As Lily approached the artifact, she could just make out the vague silhouette of the artifact that lay asleep within the crystal tomb.  She stepped up to it and pressed a hand upon the smooth, cool surface, enraptured by the mysterious power which lay before her.  Then, she shook her head and brought herself back into focus.

     “Get the wires and the tubes,” Lily ordered.  “Detach it and get it into the plane immediately.  Tarian, you’re in charge.  There should be more data that I can pull from the computers here.  You two—” and she turned to the smaller of the group.  “As soon as it is loaded, find a terminal and get started.  We haven’t a moment to lose.”  The two nodded.

     “Sir!” a voice distorted by static called over the line.  “We got hunters!”  There was a buzz on the line and the feed died out just as the speaker let out a horrified scream.

     “Hold your positions,” Lily ordered.  “Remember your orders.  I will be there shortly—just keep them away!”  Lily moved quickly over to the computers and began turning them on as quickly as she could, dashing from terminal to terminal until at least three were available.

     “Tarian, give them cover,” Lily commanded as she began to work on the codes that she had managed to pull from her first visit.  Without a word, Tarian vanished from the room.  The veteran troops were already working hard to detach the artifact and load it on to the plane.  As soon as Lily found any file that looked useful, she immediately began downloading it onto a thumb drive.  Opening each file to confirm its usefulness would be impossible at this point.  Already, she could feel the time ticking down.  _Hurry, hurry!_   She urged silently to the slowly moving timer on the screen.

     “Lily,” it was Tarian’s voice.  “It’s the headmistress and her lackey.”

     “Understood.  Can you hold them?”  Lily was tapping away at the keyboard as she spoke, desperately trying to pull up as many additional files as she could.  History, location, diaries, hypothesis—anything that would give them a better chance of activating it.  The system was sluggish, probably because of securities that had been activated after her accessing it.

     “Only for a brief time,” Tarian replied after a long pause.  Lily glanced behind her to see that the small group of muscular Faunus were almost finished loading the object into the cargo hold of the craft.  It barely fit and the plane visibly sagged under the unexpected wait.  Lily bit back a curse and sent a silent prayer up to the gods she didn’t believe in.

     “Go,” Lily had switched lines to the pilot to give that brief order, then switched back to Tarian.  “I will be there are soon as I set the final charges.”  As she said these words, she pulled the USB from the computer and laid her hands on the desk.  She pushed the charge as far as she could, letting it flow along the wires and cables that connected the terminals to each other and to the central pillar where the artifact had just been.  As the charges raced around the room, she attempt to focus them more into the walls, redirecting the ones that were straying towards the central location.  When she felt her energy sag beneath the demand, she released her hold on the terminal.  Beads of sweat slipped from her forehead down into her eyes, blinding her briefly until she blinked them away.  This would be the second charge rather than two separate charges.  Plans had to be altered sometimes.

     “Out now!” Lily shouted to the two remaining troops who had been working on other computers once the artifact had been mostly loaded.  They nodded and ran like mad out into the storm with Lily close behind them.  The aircraft was flying low to the ground at a much slower pace than before, the weight of the artifact acting as both a boon and a bane to the flight.  It seemed to keep the plane steady in the turbulence, but prevented it from gaining much altitude or speed.

     “Status?” Lily demanded of the pilot.

     “I got it,” came the reply.  Lily nodded.  If he said he could handle it, it would be fine.  He had been one of the lucky catches as a result of Human stupidity and ruthlessness.  The troops that had loaded the plane and helped with the computers were already disappearing into the storm, not even waiting for an order from her.  She nodded her approval: it was never good to have troops that couldn’t think for themselves.  They knew that she was supposed to destroy the building in two blows, not one.  As soon as they saw only one charge, they figured out her plan and took the initiative.  She would have to remember to reward them for their brains as well as their brawns.      Lily turned and started making her way around the building and towards the sound of fighting, which was barely audible above the storm.  As Tarian came into view, the charge in the laboratory detonated and a loud rumbling sound could be heard as the ground shook and tilted from the blow.  A moment of silence followed, and then the tower slowly began to tilt and sway as the base had been blown out from beneath it.  The wind was so strong that it seemed to keep the tower from falling completely, tossing it back and forth with each gust of wind until finally, the tower broke through the storm’s sadistic claws.  To Lily’s relief, the tower fell away from her and away from where the plane had last been.  It slammed into the earth, the top of the tower splitting from the middle and rolling mercilessly down the slope of the cliff to the swamps below.  Now she would have to give the third detonation for the signal, since none of the other troops knew what she had been planning for that part.

  Before her, Lily could see Tarian’s tall, black form dancing back and forth in attempts to avoid the strikes of an attacker that could barely be seen through the sand and darkness.  Lily pushed forward through the storm until she saw the large, stone shape that Tarian was faced off with.  It was twice his size, and seemed to be some sort of commemoration from a soldier of old.  It swung a stone axe at Tarian, who dodged the strike by jumping to the side and pushing off the ground into a back flip before landing neatly on his feet again.  He spun on the ball of his foot, lowering himself low to the ground to dodge one strike, before shooting up into the air to dodge an additional sweep of the large, stone axe.  The moving statue was more agile and quicker than she would have expected.  Lily threw herself forward into the fray without a second thought.  She ran forward until she was within a few feet from the living statue, then skidded across the ground with one leg forward, her back grinding against the dirt as she positioned herself just below the statue.  She laid her hands onto its left leg, then immediately rolled out from under the oversized statue.  The explosion was immediate, shattering its leg and forcing it to one knee as it lost its balance, the axe falling to the ground but not once leaving its grip.

     “Lily!” Tarian called out above the storm.  Lily whirled in time to see the blunt end of an umbrella jabbing towards her from a cloud of dirt and sand.  Lily twisted her body to the left, barely managing to miss the attack.  She fell to the earth again, rolling away to the right just in time to avoid another jab of the sharp end of the umbrella.  There was a brief moment where she could see a figure in the sand before her, standing tall and seeming untouched by the wind and sand that pummeled everything else in its path, but the image was lost in the blink of an eye.  Lily raised herself into a low crouch, her hands up in a defensive position as she began to back slowly away.  Behind her, she could hear the grinding of rocks as the statue behind her fell forward into the ground.  Either Tarian had finished the statue off, or the owner had released their hold upon it.  The latter option made her a little nervous on what was next to come.

     “Status!” she called out on the communication line.  One after the other, each had confirmed that they had begun their retreat at the sound of the third explosion.  Even the one who had given the horrified scream had replied, which would probably be a relief for Tarian.  She listened, moving slowly backward while trying to watch all positions around her.  Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a flash of blue, but it was gone in an instant.  “Tarian, retreat!”

     “But--!”

     “That is an order, Tarian,” Lily shouted.  The umbrella shot out from the sands suddenly, forcing her to leap to the side.  In an instant, the umbrella popped open, the edges of it spinning violently with razor-sharp teeth that scattered the sands in the wind wildly in all directions.  It roared like a chainsaw as the wielder of the weapon swung it towards her in a large arc.  Lily contorted her body one way to avoid the first swing.  Another pass of the deadly object forced her to jump backwards to avoid it yet again.  The deadly weapon kept swing rapidly towards her in arcs and curves, making it almost impossible for her to find her footing.  She could barely see the holder of the weapon, sometimes standing as if the storm didn’t exist, sometimes being hit by the sand like everything else.  She watched him as closely as she could until at last she figured the pattern.  Lily dropped herself to the ground, pressing her hands to the earth and filling it with a small charge.  Just as the umbrella came twirling towards her, she pushed back with her hands and flung herself into a back flip to create a little distance between her and the attacker.  A moment after she had drawn him forward, it detonated, sending a shower of rocks and clods of dirt in every direction.  The umbrella closed and withdrew quickly, vanishing into the sands and storm again.  Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a dull, gray movement caught her attention.  She turned to face the latest threat, but found too late that her legs had become entangled by what looked like a stone snake.  The heavy, cold body of the Grimm Statue had pressed upon her legs until she was forced to the ground, her chin cracking against the earth.  The newly animated threat took the opportunity to immediately wrap its rough body around her legs tightly and began coiling slowly upward as she struggled to pull herself from its grasp.

     “This is gonna hurt,” she muttered to herself as she placed her hands onto the stone form and let flow a small charge.  She tried her best to cause it to implode, but vibration from the internal detonation still sent a painful tremble through her body.  She grimaced, but bit down on any cry of shock or pain.  The broken remains of the stone snake’s body covered her from the hips down, but she was able to push them off of her with little difficulty.  Quickly, Lily rose to her feet and took off at a dead run back towards what had been the rear of the crumbled tower.  She chanced a glance behind her to see that same dark figure with the damnable umbrella running after her.

     “Lily, where are you?” Tarian demanded on the communication line.

     “I told you to retreat, dammit!” Lily hissed back to him as she dodged around the fallen stones and rubble and began the dangerously steep descent down the back of the cliff. 

     “I did,” he replied coolly.  “Then I came back.  Where are you?”

     That was Tarian: following letters to a T when it suited him, to the point where he could disobey you and justify it.  While it angered her at the insubordination, she had to admit that she was relieved that he was still nearby.

     “Heading towards the swamp below the back of the cliff.  Less wind and sand, so I am probably far more visible to them now,” Lily replied.  She chanced a glance back in time to see that the figure was still giving chase, but the distance prevented her from seeing clearly who it might be.

     “I’m bringing the bike down and around.  Hang tight,” Tarian replied.  Lily didn’t bother to respond, trying her best to run down the steep incline without losing her footing.  The back of the cliff was covered with sparse vegetation that gradually increased in thickness the further from the desert side of the cliff that you got.  The worst of the storm was blocked by the cliff, letting only minor blasts of wind roll down the cliff side.  The clouds above were scuttling across the sky at an absurd rate, occasionally giving a glimpse of the shattered moon that watched over the world of Remnant.  Far below, the thick blackness of the tangled and toxic swamp lay before her.  The swamp was the easiest thing to see in the dark landscape below because it was blacker than any of the shadows of the night or other portions of the land revealed that surrounded it.  It was like looking into a black hole or a bottomless pit and it housed some of the most deadly Grimm the world had ever heard of.  She had no desire to enter that death trap, but if Tarian wasn’t able to make it, she would have no choice.

     A hissing sound scraped by her ears, causing her to instinctively dodge to the side. She could catch a glimpse of what looked to be a dart sailing through the air and vanishing into the shadows of the night.  The wind was no longer a hindrance to projectile weapons, it seemed.  Another dart whizzed past her, missing her only because she lost her footing on the rock and unstable earth.    She managed to keep herself upright and continue her descent, casting a hasty glance behind her.  There was no sign of the blue-clad partner that had obviously been the controller of those stone sentinels, but the holder of the umbrella was gaining ground on her.

     “I see you,” came Tarian’s voice in her ear.  Lily scanned the landscape below her, looking for any sign of the bike.  At last she spotted it as it raced towards her, hovering just enough above the ground to avoid the obstructions that would make riding it impossible otherwise.  Lily skidded to a halt and braced a hand against a large, loose stone.  At any moment, her pursuer would be upon her, she knew.  Somehow, he seemed to have no trouble with the slipping stones, loose dirt, or slick grasses that had made her descent so difficult and dangerous.  The umbrella was already out, a sharp point projecting further out from the tip.  Lily braced herself, preparing to leap either out of the way or onto the bike, whichever came first.  She refused to take her eyes from her opponent, glaring through the mask in an unspoken challenge.  He seemed to glide to a halt, his forest-green hair flapping behind him in the wind.  Taking aim, he let the spear-tipped umbrella fly through the wind.  Time seemed to slow down as the weapon came flying at her without an encumbrance from wind.  Lily pushed herself off from the stone, flinging herself backwards to roll down the steep hill, her whole body tense in preparation for the impact with the hard, uncaring earth and the unstoppable tumble she was throwing herself to.

     The impact never came.  Just as she pushed herself from the rock, the loud revving sound of a two-wheeled vehicle filled her ears and a strong hand grabbed her arm.  She felt her body whipped to the side until she was pulled onto the back of the hover bike.  Throwing both of her arms around Tarian, she managed to adjust her side-saddle posture into one a little more comfortable.  It wasn’t the best way to ride, but there was really no other position she could have landed in.  Taking a deep breath, Lily glanced behind them to see the umbrella implanted into the ground where she had just stood and the man running up to reclaim his weapon.

     Letting out a long, slow breath and leaned her head against Tarian’s back.

     “I told you practicing that move was a good idea,” Tarian said lightly.  Lily didn’t even have the energy to scowl at him.  Instead, she held on tightly to him as he maneuvered the untested vehicle across the terrain and towards their new destination.  She felt absolutely exhausted, both from the fight and from over-extending her semblance.

     “Status?” Lily called lazily into the communication line to the pilot.

     “Low and slow, but you did a good job as a distraction,” came the pilot’s reply.  “Jammers are good, fuel is good, and the engines are holding out.  It may take a little longer to get home, but she’ll get there.”

     Lily let out a sigh of relief and disconnected the communication line for the time being.  They had done it.  They had succeeded.  Now, the world would pay for the injustice that it had put upon her people.  Lily smiled to herself, feeling happy for the first time since she was a small child.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Dawn was slowly approaching the sleeping city, the weak rays of the sun slowly creeping over the edge of the walls and into the streets.  Where Azura stood, the warmth of the sun had not yet reached, leaving the back of the cliff side in a kind of neutral, cool gray while the rest of the valley below sparkled in the rays of light.  Azura stood silently before the broken rubble of the tower that the waning light revealed.  All over her face and hands were the scratches and wounds left more from the storm itself then from any actual combat.  Her hair was disheveled and hanging half out of its usually neat bun and one of her shoes had vanished, either within the piles of sand that covered the area or carried off by the winds.  But she had no mind for the lost shoe or her minor wounds.  Her eyes stared, horrified at the crumbled tower before her.

     “How many were there?” she asked in a soft whisper.  After the failed attempt to capture one of the intruders, Grillo had returned to her side.  She had refused to leave until the storm cleared, and so he had stood with her, using his semblance to keep the storm off of them while they waited for the cruel truth that the light of day would reveal.  Standing in silence in a small semi-circle were the other hunters and huntresses of the faculty, their heads bowed solemnly in a silent vigil.  Though each of them had valiantly battled the fierce storm to come to their aid, they had non-the-less been too late to be of any assistance.

     “Too many,” Grillo replied in a soft, respectful whisper.  “Many had stayed in the rooms above the laboratory in case there was any kind of activity.  They had said that about a week ago, they had noticed changes in the energy of the field.  They didn’t want to miss anything.”

     Azura released his hand, her form solidifying immediately upon disconnecting from his touch.  She felt the soft, cool touch of wind upon her face as she slowly walked towards the make-shift grave that would forever mark the hillside.  She was so numb with disbelief, that she could not process what Grillo had said, even though she had asked the question and heard every word.  All she knew was that all of those scientists, all of those people who had worked so hard to understand that artifact, had died.  Some had come directly from Atlas, excited and eager to study such a new discovery.  Young, youthful eyes had proudly told her over and over again that _they_ would be the ones to unlock the secrets.  She could see each and every one of their faces, shining brightly.  More veteran men and women spoke with such passion upon the discovery, not so much eager as to be the ones to unlock it, but just the joy of their own work that lay ahead of them.  All of them shared the same certainty: understanding the artifact would change the way they used dust and aura.  It would revolutionize technology and possibly aid in expanding it in programs such as medical, space, and everyday improvements.  A few even whispered about the military advantages it might provide.  Which of those faces now lay buried beneath the stone and metal frameworks of the towers?  Which had been so unfortunate as to decide to stay near the artifact during such a horrible storm? 

     Slowly, Azura knelt down upon the cold ground and brought her hands together in a silent prayer.  She bowed her head to her hands and closed her eyes, thinking of each of those faces and hoping that most of them had chosen to stay in the apartments given them rather than in the tower.  After a long moment of silence, she rose to her feet and turned to face Grillo.  Her face was set into a hard, cold glare.

     “I will hunt them down,” Azura vowed to him, her voice flat and icy.  “They will pay for the innocent lives they have taken this night.”  She walked resolutely past Grillo, who fell in behind her without a word.  The hunters and huntresses watched in silence before slowly following her lead to return to the main campus.  In her mind, Azura was already working out her plans.  Their securities had been breached, of that she now knew, but there had been no indication.  Somewhere in the school was a plant, a spy that had managed to get access to those lines, corrupt them, and who knew what else.  She would need to find hole in their securities, find out what else they did, and seal it up.  She would also need to pull all the data that had been uploaded to her personal computer for review to see what they had discovered in this last week and what might have gone into the hands of the enemies.  She could only hope that they didn’t have a chance to preview any files they took to confirm their necessity.  The labeling of files wasn’t always intuitive to anyone outside the project. 

There were so many things that she needed to do, from notifying the families of those that had died in the attack to organizing cleaning duties for the aftermath of the storm on campus.  Some in the faculty would have to help in shifting through the fallen tower to see if there were any survivors: Azura herself would be one of them.  She had always thought that such acts and necessities had died with the last war.  She was both angry and disappointed to learn that this was not the case after all.

     “What shall we do first?” Grillo asked, running to keep paced with her angry, quick strides.

     “Someone breached our systems.  They may still be using it, putting us and the entire student body in danger,” Azura replied.  “We need an expert hacker to fill that hole, and we just might be able to catch her before she leaves.”


	18. Take Off

     It was the early morning, sunlight still barely touching the tips of the trees in the courtyard outside of the hospital.  The scenery outside was still a muted gray with dots of color starting to flourish where the rays of the brilliant sun struck, giving the view a slightly impressionistic view.

     Gauri sat in a wheelchair, her back now to the scene and her one eye glaring at the two visitors that had prevented her from leaving as early as she had planned.  Perhaps another time, she would have been honored to be visited by the headmistress and her right-hand man, but that was months ago.  Now, she looked upon them as unwanted intruders upon her life, and she treated them as such.  She did not care that the headmistress was scratched and torn with swollen red eyes and a lost shoe, and their brief explanation of the events that had led them to that state did not move her to pity.  Instead, she was infuriated with them and she let her one good eye show them the full intensity of her displeasure.

     “Let me get this straight,” Gauri said through clenched teeth.  She placed hand at her temple in an attempt to rub at her temple, but the slight pain it caused forced her to pull her hand back.  “You basically want me to dive into your systems, hunt down this would-be hacker, and fix the security again because of the hush-hush secret that killed Kale and left me—” and she gave a dramatic flair of her arm to direct their view to her disfigured state— “like this.  And you _still_ won’t tell me why I should bother risking my very sanity for your little pet project.  Is that right?”

     Azura exchanged a look with Grillo that clearly showed her discomfort.  They seemed to spend a moment in silent communication before Azura broke the gaze and turned to Gauri once more.

     “Will you tell us where your parents are and what they did to earn the wrath of Atlas?” Azura asked calmly, crossing her arms over her chest.  Gauri sighed.

     “Fair play,” she said.  “But still.  Why come to me?  You should have an army of hackers at your disposal.”

     “Sadly, that is not the case,” Azura replied.  “You are the best.  You know that as well as everyone in this room.”

     Gauri glanced up at the doctor who stood behind her, holding the handles of the wheelchair she was sitting in.  He gave a small nod of his head but said nothing.  The moment the headmistress had entered, he had fallen into the row of a silent statue that hears and sees nothing.

     “Well, you are right about one thing,” Gauri finally relented.  “The person who broke into your systems was no hobbyist.  Your securities were pretty tight, so no slacker could do that.  But you still ask the impossible.”  Gauri shifted in her seat as best she could, the platform that extended from the wheelchair to support her fake cast-leg making it difficult to find a comfortable position.  She cast her eye to the side as a wave of self-pity and regret briefly stole over her.

     “Surely there is something you can do?” Azura asked.  It sounded almost like a plea, actually.  “If they have indefinite access, then the school and everyone here could be in danger.  There is no telling what documents they could steal or what other liberties they could take!”

     “It’s not like I don’t want to help,” Gauri blurted.  “But, well—take a look at exhibit A!”  She waved her right hand about in a strong, sweeping motion that was not too fast but enough to make her point.  “I have never typed with one hand before, and you are asking me to use it to break into codes and all those other wonderful schematics?  Do you have even the smallest inkling as to how long that would take me?  At least three historical wars would pass before I finished!”

     “We thought maybe your Semblance…”

     “No, that won’t work,” Gauri sighed.  She slumped in the wheelchair and stared up at the ceiling for several moments before continuing, a look of absolute dejection and frustration upon her features.  “Whatever it was that damaged the right side of my head must have hit something inside.  Doing basic stuff takes more effort and often leaves a small headache that I never had before…” Gauri let the sentence fall off, another worry gnawing at the back of her mind.  Ever since she had started using her Semblance more consistently, she had had the vaguest impression that something was wrong.  She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but it reminded her of the times she connected with infected computers.  There was something in those systems that always attracted her attention with a strong sense of wrongness that led her to the culprit.  She had always found it a useful instinct and often joked that it was her Cyber-sense tingling, but this time it worried her because it was about her own mind; not a computer.  Something was wrong, and she didn’t know what it could be.  Her first thought was her depression about the death of Kale, but she knew it wasn’t that.  It was something more subtle, like her brain had been tampered with.  It sent a chill down her spine just thinking of it.

     “The Doctor here has told us you have been using it to communicate with your mother,” Azura began.

     “Yes and the results have been unstable at times,” Gauri explained.  “Whatever this hacker did, it is not going to leave a trail.  Most likely, it will have a feature that will allow it to re-write or at least re-name itself and will be incredibly difficult to isolate.  If I take any break or am distracted in any way, I will have to start all over again, and this—” she gave a jerk of her index finger towards her bandaged head to emphasize her point “—hurts!  I would get no uninterrupted time with this injury.  I would never find it.”

     Azura’s face gave only the slightest glimmer of disappointment before regaining herself admirably.

     “Is there anything you can recommend, at least?” she asked at last.

     Gauri took a moment to consider the question.  It occurred to her that she could offer the recommendation of one of the students in the lab who often worked on the computer with Gauri, but she quickly dismissed that.  A high level hacker would be needed, and the student body was sadly lacking in that department.  Most were hobbyists at worst or intermediate at best.  Besides, anyone inside or outside the school would be a risk because the hacker could well still be on the premises.

     “What, exactly, did this hacker do?” Gauri ask.  All pretense was gone, her demeanor completely serious and cold.  Her irritation had vanished, replaced by a cool mask of disciplined curiosity.

     “We are not a hundred percent certain,” Azura answered with a matching matter-of-fact tone.  “We know that the shield on the back of the cliff was disabled and the usual automatic weaponry was taken off line.  The radar was jammed as well.  There didn’t seem to be any hindrance to the manual alarm I initiated before leaving to engage the intruders.  Outside of that, we are unable to find anything amiss in the systems.”

     Gauri crooked her index finger and hooked it on the tip of her chin in thought, her eye taking on a far-away look as she turned over this information.  She knew enough about how the systems worked: everything was connected, but there were strong security walls around the headmistress’ computer system and probably anything connected with the secret project on the back of the campus.  Still, a worthy hacker could jump from a computer anywhere on campus to hers if they had the patience.

     “Which systems do you usually connect with from your office?” Gauri asked in a distance voice, her mind already drawing up a mental map of the cyber highways that she had already traversed in her earlier time at the academy.

     “The tower that fell, the hospital, and two specific teachers who are part of the project,” Azura immediately responded.

     “What about the lab?  The Library?”

     “The lab has had one or two connections, but after that, none.”

     Gauri fell silent again.  It wasn’t likely that the teachers in question would allow anyone access to their personal computers, but it was still a risk.  The tower was destroyed, but that didn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t a possibility.  If the hacker had somehow been part of the team, then they could have used that at any time.  The Lab was open to anyone, which would make it more difficult to trace.  First, she needed to know when the virus or program was implemented and then she could go back and check records to try and track who did it.

     “Look,” Gauri snapped back to reality as quickly as she had departed from it, her one eye sparkling slightly.  “I can’t do anything now.  Give me time to heal, first.”

     “But what if something happens before then?” Azura frowned.

     “Not likely,” Gauri said confidently.  “They already got what they came for.  If they had any brains, they would have pulled what they could from the computers already there.  It will be a while before they figure out that they don’t have all the information they need.  They might not even figure that out at all unless the plant was from the inside of the team.  That will give me time…”  She felt silent again, her plans already changing and her mind immediately deviating away from the conversation at hand.

     “So, you will do it?” Azura asked.  Gauri blinked

“Maybe,” Gauri gave a small smile.  “It will depend on if it works or not.”

 “If what works?” Azura frowned in confusion.

“That is my little secret, Headmistress,” Gauri gave a playful grin.  “I am late.  It is time to go, Doctor.”

The doctor glanced at the headmistress for a brief moment before pushing Gauri towards the door to the room.  A little bit of a thrill passed for her as she went through the doorway for the final time.  There was a sense of liberation in passing through the halls of the hospital on the first steps of her journey.  Part of her was saddened to be leaving behind her team, but she did not let that stop her.  She now knew what she wanted to do, and there would be nothing to stop her.

It was a short walk to the elevators at the end of the hall behind the nurse’s station.  A few nurses were already on duty and barely cast a glance to the Doctor and his charge, busy with the paperwork of other patients or preparing their morning routines.  Gauri raised her head a little and peered as far as she could into the recesses of the large alcove-like room in hopes of catching a glimpse of Don or the old nurse, but neither seemed to be present at the time.  She relaxed back into the wheelchair as it continued on down the hall, a little saddened that she could not say good-bye to anyone, even the people that had cared for her all this time.

Together, the two rode the elevator in silence up to the roof.  The doctor pushed the wheelchair out onto the roof and waited a moment for the doors to close behind them before coming to stand before Gauri.  He knelt down to place himself at her eye level and took her good hand in his aged, rough hands.

“Are you sure you want to do this alone?” he asked, a tint of fatherly concern coloring his voice.  His white hair had been carefully smoothed back and brushed neatly into place, making him look more like the professional doctor that he truly was and his eyes shined with worry.

“It’s for the best, Doctor,” Gauri managed to reply around a sudden lump in her throat.  He was the one person he would be able to say good-bye to, and it stung her once more with a feeling of betrayal.  She wanted so much to tell Onyx what was happening, but she had made her choice and it was now too late to change anything.  “Tell Onyx…” Gauri stopped herself.  The Doctor gently patted her hand and smiled.

“I will,” was all he said.  He resumed his place behind her and maneuvered her wheelchair across the roof which doubled as a helicopter pad.  In the center was a simple helicopter, a small private vehicle that the doctor often used for private trips across the city.  The pilot was already inside, waiting patiently as the Doctor settled Gauri into the back seat and folded up the wheelchair to place beside her.

“Tell that old nurse and Don that I said good-bye, at least,” Gauri said, catching his sleeve before he pulled back from the helicopter to let it take off.  Gauri found that she wanted so much to express her gratitude to them that she couldn’t leave without that message.  “Thank them for dealing with me all this time and…” Gauri’s voice trailed off when she noticed the look upon the Doctor’s face.  It had suddenly clouded over in confusion, his pushy brows drawn together.

“Who?” he asked in perplexity.

“The old nurse and Don?” Gauri repeated in a questioning tone.

“Who is Don?” the Doctor asked.

For whatever reason, the question set off a red flag in Gauri’s mind.  She wasn’t sure why she was suddenly anxious and worried, but the feeling washed over her with such intensity that she found it difficult to speak for a moment.

“Don is the intern Faunus working as a nurse,” Gauri tried to explain.  “He has big, mule-like ears.  He asked you to bring the lunch cart to me the other day.”  She was hoping that a specific event would help remind him of the young fellow.  It was quite possibly that with all the people in the hospital, he didn’t know every name and face that graced the halls.  Then again, Don had repeatedly spoken proudly of how much the Doctor praised his medical skill.

“I did that because of the timing,” the Doctor said after a moment’s recollection.  “I was coming to speak with you anyway and it was breakfast, so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone.  I saw no Faunus as I came to your room.”  Gauri was still not willing to let it go.

“But he was very proud of the fact that you acknowledged his medical genius and ability to stitch beautifully.  He said that you were trying to help him work on his bedside manner with placing him as an intern nurse!”  Gauri couldn’t keep the anxiousness from her voice as the implications of the Doctor’s response began to seep in very quickly to every faucet of her brain.

     “There is no such person in the entire city,” the Doctor stated firmly.  “If there was such a fellow, you can rest assured that I would know his name and face and I wouldn’t put him on such a low position, regardless of his poor attitude. I would more likely handle all interactions and just keep him in the surgery room, if he was that good.”

     Gauri fell silent, holding his sleeve tightly with her one hand.  The hospital.  The hacker.

     “But how could he do it…how could he fool the old nurse like that?” she mumbled more to herself.

     “I can ask her myself, but I doubt anyone would do so,” the Doctor answered for her.  “I can assure you that she would have spoken to me immediately about such a fellow.  She may be old, but she isn’t stupid.  There is no way someone could con her like that.”  He sounded almost a little defensive of the old nurse, like he was trying to protect her honor.  Gauri tried to focus on him again, but already her mind was reeling, trying to recall his schedule and his movements.  It was a vague mist in her mind.  She knew that Don existed and that he had come to her room often, but it felt like she was trying to pull a shark up out of the ocean using a bamboo fishing line when she tried to pull up the details or remembering anything specific.

     “The television!” Gauri practically shouted, startling both the pilot and the Doctor.  “He was the one who showed Caelestis the television.  She yelled at him for his stupidity.  She most definitely would remember that!”  Even as she said it, she somehow knew that the hope would be short lived.  Her own mind kept fogging over the memory of Don and anything related to it, making it more and more difficult to remember anything more than he was there and did things.  Gauri let go of the Doctor’s sleeve and closed her eye, squeezing it shut as tightly as she could and turning her own thoughts inward.  _Just like downloading myself to the computer_ , she thought to herself.  _Only this time, I am checking my own software_.

     The world around her seemed to grow more and more silent.  Time came to a standstill as she felt around in her own mind; feeling for the circuits and coding that created the human brain and showed her own Semblance.  Something _was_ wrong inside, she could feel it.  It was like her memory had been corrupted, making it difficult to remember what she wanted to recall.  Gauri paused, making a note of it, and then pulled herself back.  She couldn’t do much about it now, not in her current state, but it gave her an idea of what might have happened.  It was one of the benefits of her Semblance, but not something she could replicate on others.  In fact, she wasn’t sure anyone could do what she sometimes did.  She figured that her mind had adapted to her semblance, working more like a computer and thus allowing her to do self-analysis.  It gave her just enough information to understand what might have happened.

     “Ask the head nurse about him,” Gauri said, the iris of her eye shimmer a bright shade of lilac as if an inner light shown forth.  “You probably won’t get much, but check anyways and let me know what you find out.  Check all the security cameras for a Faunus with mule ears, brown hair and eyes, standing a little taller than average for man and skinny.  Look at time frames around breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  He came most often around those times.”  Gauri was half-tempted to dismiss the security cameras, as most likely he would have manipulated them or deleted them entirely, but it was worth a shot.  If he was, by any chance, anywhere still on campus, then they might be able to catch him and see if he really was the culprit.  Gauri had already written him off, but wanted to see if more evidence came to light before she said anything.

     “Should I notify the headmistress?” the Doctor asked.

     “Yes,” Gauri said.  “There aren’t many Faunus in the school, so other cameras might be able to pull up his image if he has been anywhere else.  I will contact you later, after I am settled with my parents.”  Gauri barely heard the Doctor’s farewell as he stepped back from the helicopter.  Already, the engine was blaring above her as the helicopter slowly lifted up into the air, the pilot carefully manipulating the machine up into the air and off to the rendezvous with her parents.

     The trip was a short one, but was hardly noticed by Gauri.  Already, she was considering all of the possible scenarios that could play out if Don had been the hacker.  There was always someone at a terminal, so it was not guaranteed that he had used those computers.  Logically speaking, he would have done better to mask himself as a student.  He could have used the labs and it would have been harder to track him until she was in the system.  Why he would use the hospital as his cover didn’t make much sense.  It left a few options.  He wasn’t the hacker and the Doctor really did just forget.  Or, he wasn’t the hacker but he was there for other nefarious reasons.  He was the hacker but was on a dual mission.  After that, there was just the fact that he was the hacker and he chose the hospital for his own personal reasons.

Gauri still believed that the systems would not be accessed again, at least not for the moment.  She should have enough time to fix herself up so that she could handle the matter personally and reinforce the system to prevent future cracks like that.

     _I guess I really am a huntress_ , she thought to herself wryly.  _I could just easily wash my hands of the matter and claim I am no longer obligated to the school or anything else, but I just can’t turn my back, can I?_

     It wasn’t long before the pilot was maneuvering the helicopter near a small, isolated alcove that lay along the cliff face outside the city walls by a few miles.  It was a deep alcove that vanished into a shadowy dome-shape deep into the cliff-side and was located several meters up the cliff face.  In the shadow of the alcove, waiting impatiently out of sight of the pilot, Gauri could just make out two familiar figures wearing dark clothing.  She had to bite back a curse, as she had explicitly told them that only one of them was to come.  Still, she could not hold back her own little smile of joy at knowing that she would finally be able to at least partially embrace her parents once more.

     As soon as the helicopter had touched down, the taller figure had rushed forward while the smaller had waited in the shadows.  It was her father, a wide grin revealing his pearly-white teeth and emphasizing the wrinkles upon his face.  His dark hair was tinged with white and gray in patches that seemed uneven, while the stubble along his jaw betrayed his long absence from the razor.  He shared the same violet eyes as she, framed by skin a bit darker in shade than her own.  In moments, he had gathered her in his arms, displacing the false casts from both her arm and leg in the movement.

     “My baby girl!  My precious darling!” he cried over and over again and he embraced her tightly.

     “Dad—!” Gauri groaned, gasping desperately for air.  “I can’t _breathe_!  Dad!”

     Immediately, he released her and stepped back to take in her face.  His grin was so big that she was certain it would split his face in two if he wasn’t careful.

     “I’m just so happy to see my baby girl again,” he beamed.  Gauri rolled her eye, but smiled.

     “I’m happy to see you again, too, Dad,” she said.  It often struck her as amusing that her calm nature could relate so well with his outgoing and over-zealous one.  She was far more like her mother, yet found it easier to speak with her father.  It was odd, but she figured it had something to do with human nature.

     Within moments, Gauri was sitting in a wheelchair and the three of the watched the helicopter depart before her Mother finally threw her arms around Gauri and planted a motherly kiss upon her forehead.  Her mother had the same complexion and features as Gauri, but her eyes were a deep brown color that looked almost black.  Her black hair was pulled back into a tight bun, a style she often adopted when working on any of her projects where it could get in the way.  Most likely, she had been working on something right up until the moment of departure to distract herself.

Her mother said no words, but stared deeply at her daughter’s face with the look of a mother both horrified at finding her child so horribly wounded and resolute at bringing down the wraith of heaven upon the criminal who had done so.

     “I love you so much, Gauri,” her mother whispered softly before embracing her daughter tightly.  Her mother rose up and took hold of the handles of Gauri’s wheelchair.  The three of them began to move towards the entrance of the alcove when Gauri motioned them to stop.

     Silently, Gauri leaned forward in her wheelchair, attempting to peer out from under the lip of the alcove, her one eye searching the sky above them.  For some reason, she could have sworn she had heard a sound of some kind, but it had vanished in an instant.  The back of her mind was tingling again, in a way that told her that something was wrong but she could not determine what it was.  The sky was clear, not a wisp of a cloud or any trace of the storm that had raged through the city the night before.  After several tense moments, Gauri finally motioned her parents onward.  Her father began chatting incessantly about the various modifications he was making on his pet project as well as some new data he had gleamed from the old files they had pilfered before their flight from Atlas.  Her mother was silently pushing the wheelchair her eyes actively searching the landscape while Gauri kept an equally vigilant watch towards the sky.

     It was at least ten minutes before they came upon the transportation that would whisk them to her parents’ hiding place.  They had piled into the vehicle, her father talking non-stop as he put the wheelchair into the trunk and took the driver’s wheel.  Her mother took the passenger seat beside him and Gauri occupied the back seat with her casts arranged on the seat beside her.  Sitting in the car for a brief moment, Gauri was a little shocked at seeing the empty space where her leg used to be.  She had always had it under cover of the cast and really never had to come to terms with its absence.  She stared at the gaping hole for a long moment, her mind numbing over as she study the stump that now formed the remainder of her thigh.  The car was already roaring across the sands, the specially modified tires allowing it to whisk along the shifting sands with little trouble.  Her father’s voice and the rev of the engine were the only things preventing the trip from being completely void of sound. 

Gauri only half-heard his rambling, her eye never once leaving the sky that she could see from the car window.  For the whole journey, Gauri could not shake the feeling of eyes following their journey, even though there was not a single sign of anyone or anything for miles.  The tingling in the back of her mind seemed to intensify, the more she searched the skies and land around her, casting a dark cloud over her joyful meeting.


	19. The Aftermath of the Storm

     Caelestis stood off to the side of the entrance, a tray held tightly in both of her hands as she scanned the sea of faces.  Somehow, she had made it to lunch on her own, but she took little consolation in it.  The morning had been one strain after another, and she was anxious to see at least one familiar, friendly face for a change.  The tray was almost empty, an apple and a dish that had caught her interest.  She wasn’t really hungry, anyway, and she feared holding up the line with her indecision.

     Over the last couple of days, Caelestis had been walking with Onyx up to the second tier, where they would part for their morning classes.  Caelestis would venture up the stairs on her own to her private lessons with Grillo.  It was the first time that they had done this that Caelestis had learned that she seemed to be disliked by most of the student body.  She hadn’t shared much with Onyx about the hateful glares and secret whispers that marked an unfriendly environment.  Onyx didn’t seem to pay it much mind, which was bothersome to Caelestis.  She truly felt like Onyx was her one and only friend in the entire school, but even in this, she was completely isolated.  Often, the whispers or talking would die down as she drew close.  Once or twice, she had seen some person start to walk towards her, only to be called back by their friends.

     At first, Caelestis had thought that it had had something to do with her Faunus heritage.  She had quickly noticed that Faunus were few and far between on the campus, and that they generally seemed to stay close to their teams.  But today had removed that suspicion completely.  The storm from the night before had left huge piles of sand throughout the courtyards of the school, and teams of students were helping some of the teachers clean up the sands so that other students could get to class.  The teachers had seemed oblivious to the glares and scowls that were directed as Caelestis.  She had thought that maybe they were upset that she wasn’t helping.  It rankled her a little because she had no clue what they were using to move the sand and would have been completely useless to them.  It was at that moment that she realized the workers were not glaring at anyone else.  There were so many students walking to and fro among the pathways, but none of them even elicited a glance from those that were working.  Not even other Faunus.  Only Caelestis.

     The surety that there was some conspiracy against her drove her at a fast pace to the cafeteria on the second tier, anxious to find Onyx and tell her everything in the hopes that she could finally help her figure out what was going on.

     Before she could enter into the cafeteria, a young man with a large sword strapped to her back had blocked her way.  His rust-colored hair and slate gray eyes had frozen her in her tracks as they scanned her up and down.  He had then walked right up to her and seized her wrist, shaking it slightly.

     “Weak,” he muttered more to himself.  His eyes returned to her.  “And vacant, too, it seems.  I seriously doubt any of it is true.”  Caelestis cast him a questioning look, yanking her wrist free of his grasp and rubbing at it.

     “Who are you?” she asked.  She had caught most of what he had said, and understood that he had insulted her greatly, though she could in no way deny the fact that she was weak.

     “I’ll give you some friendly advice since you are new here,” he responded without identifying himself.  “Cut KOGS loose.”

     “Who?  What?” Caelestis asked in utter confusion.

     “The lowlifes you are associated with,” he said as he brushed past her.  “The gypsy, the bean-pole, and the patchwork doll.”  Caelestis was even more confused by his words, but didn’t want to embarrass herself further by asking.

     “Why?” she asked instead, trying to save some face from this arrogant passer-by.

     “Because, as of right now, I have nothing against you,” he said simply.  “I am a terrible enemy to have.  If you want to avoid going on my black list, you will take my advice.”  He paused in thought before addressing her a final time.  “I tell you this because you are obviously ignorant of everything going on around here.  I like to give people a chance, you see.”

     And with his message delivered, the young man walked off towards one of the doors in the central wall.

     Caelestis had stared after him, her face flushed with anger and shame.  He must have been referring to Onyx and her team.  Onyx was the only person she associated with outside of Grillo, so it was the only possible explanation.  The man had been arrogant and completely self absorbed, sure of his place in the world, with the bearing of someone who was used to being obeyed.  He was the type of person that Caelestis wouldn’t trust unless he was the last person on earth, but even then, she would be wary.  She tucked his warning in the back of her mind, deciding that this was one thing Onyx didn’t need to be troubled with, and then had continued into the cafeteria.

     Now, she was standing anxiously at the threshold of the eating hall with her food in hand and no sign of the bouncing black locks that she so desperately wanted to see.  As the moments ticked by, more and more people became aware of her presence and a few were suddenly shifting to their angry, hate-filled looks.  Caelestis shifted nervously on her feet as she scanned the area over and over again, the tray she held starting to shake slightly.  _Onyx, where are you?_   she thought over and over again.

     At that moment, a small, lithe person began making her way between the rows of tables and people towards her.  She was so small, that at first, Caelestis had thought she was a child.  Her thin frame was a stark contrast to the bulky warriors that were sitting at the nearest table.  Soft wisps of pale blue hair seemed to flow around her face like gentle rivers, the ringlets of hair bouncing with each movement.  Caelestis watched the young woman in fascination, half expecting her to collapse on the spot from her own weight.  At last, the dancing reed was before Caelestis, a smile on her lips and pale eyes shining with delight.

     “You _must_ be Caelestis,” she said, taking Caelestis’ hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.  “I am just delighted to finally make your acquaintance!”

     “Um…Hi?” Caelestis said uncertainly.

     “Dear me, where are my manners,” the young woman released her hand.  “I am Echo, a friend of Onyx.”  Echo took up each corner of her skirt and bent her knees slightly, one leg dipping a little farther back behind her.  It was a strange sort of bow, with the slight lowering of the head the only indication that that was what it was.  Caelestis gave a nod of her head since she wasn’t wearing a skirt and was sure that she would fall over if she attempted to copy that bow.

     “You know Onyx?” Caelestis asked skeptically.

     “Yes, I indeed do,” Echo responded with a warm smile.  “She is awaiting you out in the courtyard behind the cafeteria.  Come and I shall show you to her.”

     Caelestis cast her eyes once more around the cafeteria, a little uncertain on if this fay-like creature was being honest or deceitful.  Her eyes only once more confirmed the absence of her friend and the growing hostility of the crowd. 

     “Uh…okay?” Caelestis was still uncertain about this stranger, but was beginning to think that going with her would be better than the alternative that seemed to be presenting herself.  Without hesitation, the woman took her arm and guided her back through the throng of people and towards the entrance of the building.  Her grip was a lot firmer than Caelestis expected, hinting at the unseen strength this individual possessed.

     Echo confidently conducted her charge through the increasing mass of people who were anxious for their afternoon meal.  She seemed to know exactly where she was going, so Caelestis just allowed herself to be pulled along like a kite tail in the wind.  Once they had rounded the corner into the shade of the building, Caelestis’ eyes immediately alighted upon Onyx’s cheerful grin.

     “Onyx!” Caelestis cried out in release.  She rushed over to her friend and threw an arm around her.  “I am so glad to see you!”  Onyx gave a hearty laugh before pulling back.

     “What’s the matter with you?” Onyx asked.

     “Come now, Onyx, you must surely understand your friend’s concerns,” Echo scolded as she caught up with the two of them.

     “Echo…” Onyx began.

     “Onyx, we must be candid with her,” Echo explained patiently, crossing her arms over her chest.  Onyx meekly agreed with Echo, clasping her hands behind her back and looking down at the ground as if she were being scolded by a parent.  Caelestis was completely caught off guard by this demur side of Onyx: she hadn’t even thought such a thing was possible with someone like her.  It made it all the more awkward because of the staggering height difference between the two.  Out of the three, Onyx was by far the tallest while Echo was the smallest with Caelestis caught in the middle.

     “Look, Caelestis,” Onyx turned to her, stilling looking at the ground.  Her dark cheeks were flushed in embarrassment as she spoke.  “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you earlier about the bullying.  I checked into it with Echo’s help and we found out that…well…There are some nasty, unfounded rumors going on around you.  I didn’t want you to worry, so I didn’t tell you.  I was hoping to have it all sorted out, but then this storm hit and there was an attack by the White Fang and things are just out of control now.”

     Caelestis looked from Onyx to Echo before turning her attention fully on Onyx again.

     “It’s really bad?” Caelestis opted to say finally.  There were a million other things that she could have said or asked, but she chose the simplest one.  It was bad, that was one thing she could understand.  Onyx gave a nod of the head.

     “I promise, I’ll take care of it,” Onyx’s eyes flashed with determination as she lifted her gaze to meet Caelestis’ eyes.  “I’m sorry I treated it like it was nothing before, but I will take care of it.  Don’t worry about it so much, okay?”

     Caelestis put a reassuring hand on Onyx’s shoulder to let her know that she trusted her.  After a moment, she released the shoulder and pulled away towards the trees that dotted the shaded oasis they were speaking in.  She sat down and stared at the nearby rock wall for a long moment, thoughts flashing through her mind.  There was no rhyme or reason to the thoughts.  Most of them were fueled by emotion and fear, and she gave herself over to that moment while the other two waited silently nearby.  When she was sure that the last of it had trailed through her thoughts, she turned to face the two again and launched into the events of this morning.  As an afterthought, she shared the experience with the mysterious red-head that had spoken to her before she entered the cafeteria as well.

     “Weylin,” they said at the same time.  Onyx’s voice was bitter and resentful, while Echo had a slight hint of amusement in hers.

     “Don’t worry about him,” Onyx said off-handedly.  “He knows I would wipe the floor with him if he so much as touches a hair on your head.”

     “How would he know that?” Caelestis asked.

     “Because I told him as much yesterday,” Onyx grinned fiercely.

     “I will speak with him, also,” Echo gave a small, smile that hid a private meaning known only to her.  “In the meantime, it would be to our advantage to think of a course of action in addressing this dreadful affair.”

     “Well, all we can do is find the source and pound it into the ground,” Onyx said with a shrug.  Echo shot Onyx an icy glare, but Onyx merely grinned mischievously.  “That well may be the only way to fix this, after all.  Obviously they aren’t going to listen to reason!”

     “Breaking legs should be withheld as a last resort, Onyx,” Echo chided.  “First we must locate the perpetrators, and any they have swayed to their side.  After that, we should at least attempt a form of diplomatic persuasion.  If that should fail, then I will gracefully step aside and permit you to…have your way with them.  Is that reasonable?”

     “Diplomatic persuasion never works,” Onyx scowled playfully.

     “Neither does breaking legs wantonly,” Echo shot back, a twinkle in her eyes.  “Allow my team a day to research this and then we shall see where it is we stand.”  Onyx agreed to this with a simple thumbs up gesture.

     “Now how to handle Caelestis’ schedule to keep her out of trouble,” Onyx said thoughtfully.  She took a lock of her raven-black hair and began winding it around her index finger as she thought, her eyes staring off at nothing for a long, silent moment.

     “Well, it would be most wise if she was not traipsing about on her own,” Echo pointed out.

      “She doesn’t traipse about,” Onyx pointed out.  “She goes to classes, to food, and to the dorms.  No traipsing there.”

      Echo gave a huff as she rolled her eyes.  “Onyx, you are in that mood today, it seems.”  Onyx gave a sly grin but made no reply.  “In any case, she should really not walk alone.  You should be with her at all times.  If not that, then one of my team can act as an escort for her until this is straightened out.”

     “Nah, I’ll do it,” Onyx waived suggestion off.  “Classes are boring anyways, and I don’t like her walking alone, either.  I can get the headmistress to agree to it, no problem.”

     “Onyx is the type to beg forgiveness rather than ask permission,” Echo said in a quiet aside to Caelestis.  Throughout the entire conversation, Caelestis had sat in utter silence, absorbing this natural conversation with only a slight inkling of what any of it meant.  There were only three main points that she could pull out of it: Echo’s team would be looking for something; Onyx was going to be walking with her more; and, most importantly, Caelestis was not safe.  As she considered the fact that she was in a mini-city full of deadly, well trained warriors, she became positively terrified of what could happen if things were not fixed immediately.  She didn’t understand why any of this was happening: she hadn’t _done_ anything!

     “Why do they hate me?” Caelestis turned this question to Echo because she seemed to have taken control of the situation.

     “Oh, my dear,” Echo said sympathetically.  “They do not hate you, exactly.   They just think that you are someone whom you are not.  You came to this school at a bad time and people usually make connections where there are none.”

     “The attack Onyx said?” it was one of the few words Caelestis had been able to pull out of Onyx’s little speech earlier.  Onyx and Echo nodded in unison.

     “As a guest in our fair city, you should not worry at all about any of this,” Echo informed her firmly.  “It is our duty to correct this error and make the start of your life here more comfortable and pleasant.  Please allow us to take care of this for you.”

     All Caelestis could do was to nod her assent, though she wasn’t exactly sure what she was assenting to.  She trusted Onyx, and Onyx seemed to trust this individual. 

     “Well, now that that is taken care of,” Echo said, the smile returning to her lips.  “I believe that Onyx was also hinting at an enjoyable excursion out into the city tomorrow.  The weekend is, after all, a perfect time for conducting a desperately needed make-over.”  Echo’s eyes fell upon Caelestis as she spoke.  “Since our resident guru has…unfortunately suffered a bit of a crisis, I would gladly volunteer to help you find a style that is your own.”

     “Yeah!” Onyx chimed in.  “I got permission and play money, so we can do your hair, get you your own clothes, and a whole bunch of fun stuff, too!  There is a great restaurant that has a bunch of food you have never tried yet! You will love it!  Oh, and we can take you to your first movie!”

     The two friends were off rambling about the plans for the weekend and trying to imagine various looks upon Caelestis as they spoke.  Echo had reached out a hand to touch the long, flowing mass of hair that cascaded almost to the ground.

     “I know that you would love to trim this a little,” she said politely.  Caelestis took up the hair in her hand and stared at it with a mixture of loathing and nostalgia.  She was anxious to be rid of the weight of the hair, but a sharp sting of unease tinged that desire.  She had never had it cut before and could not imagine what it would be like to have shorter hair.

     “Very well, let us meet at the ground tier.  I can introduce you to D.C.,” Echo said excitedly.

     “You finally finished the stables?” Onyx asked with interest.

     “Yup!  D.C. came in yesterday.  She’s still a bit stressed from the journey, but she should be in good spirits tomorrow.”  Echo waved farewell to the two of them as she started off towards the front of the cafeteria.  Onyx and Caelestis finished off lunch there, Onyx making various suggestions on style and looks that Caelestis might want to try this weekend as they ate.  Caelestis nodded the entire time, not really understanding what an A-line skirt or gaucho pants were.  She was just happy to be back in the safety of Onyx’s protective gaze.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Echo descended the as quickly as her legs would go, gracefully dodging between the spaces that were often found in large groups of people.  Her slight form allowed her to easily slip through the smallest of places, making it easy for her to travel quickly in even the most crowded of areas.  Her teammates, Namid, Sumi and Thomas, were awaiting her near the front of the little stable she had spent a whole year building.  The project had been a deal with the headmistress.  Generally, animals were not allowed on campus as they were a distraction for both the owner and other students.  Echo had pleaded with the headmistress, pointing out that D.C. was part of her fighting style and was linked to a long tradition of hunters and huntresses before technology exploded across remnant.  In the end, the headmistress had agreed to let her bring D.C. to the campus on the condition that Echo builds the living quarters on her own. 

     It was a common oversight made by most people.  Echo was of old aristocratic blood, with the most proper of upbringings this side of the desert, so it was assumed that she would not “lower herself to the standards of wading in the mud.”  The truth was quite the opposite.  She was quite fond of woodworking projects and had her own private shop at home where she tinkered with various designs and motifs.  While it was true that she was not an architect, and the hobby of woodwork was second to her love of music and singing, she had enjoyed the challenge the deal had presented.  She had spent her first year studying how to build a safe stable in her free time and her second year had been spent in the actual construction.  It had been a year of trial and error, but she was pleased with the results.

     Echo found her team exactly where she had expected.  Thomas was off to the side, engaged in a small, leather-bound book...  His thin, round-rimmed glasses were perched on his aquiline nose with care.  His sharp features gave him a chiseled, Adonis-like look that drove half the female population into an obsessed frenzy that was beyond Echo’s understanding.  Sure, he was handsome, but he wasn’t _that_ handsome.  She was not one for the slender athletic type, anyway, so perhaps that was why she was unaffected by his charm.  Today, he had his sandy-brown hair pulled back into a loose ponytail, which made his dark brown eyes seemed to stand out more amongst his pale olive skin.

     Namid was the balance to Thomas’ playboy style.  She had just about every man out there drooling after her as she walked by.  Her flaming red hair was halo around her soft, rounded face.  It shimmered against her dark, golden-brown skin.  The haunting red eyes were a deeper, entrancing shade then her hair, giving her the overall appearance of an exotic and dangerous beauty.  She was sitting near Sumi, laughing about something she had mostly likely just said to him while he stared down at his sketchbook in contemplation.

     Every team had their one member who seemed out of place, and Sumi was that member in this team.  He had ink-black hair, extremely pale skin, and black holes for eyes.  He was the quite type, the kind who never spoke unless he needed to, and was easy to miss in a crowd.  At the moment, he was working on a watercolor painting on thick paper while Namid yammered away, completely aware that he was not paying attention.

     As Echo neared, she caught Thomas lifting an eye to her, only to quickly return it to his book with a slight smirk.  Inwardly, she groaned.  The team had made it their prerogative to teacher her to be more aggressive and loud, saying that her delicate voice and manner was in no way appropriate to lead any kind of fighters.  All of them had had some kind of strict training in their past that revolved around almost military tactics.  Sumi had come from a temple far off in Haven before moving here, where the head of the temple carried on strict discipline with early morning drills.  Thomas’ father had been in the military under the Cruisers, who were known to be so strict that any deviation from the rules was harshly met.  While Thomas had managed to keep his lushes mane, he had developed a habit of snapping to attention when anyone yelled anything.  Even Namid had not been saved from such strict discipline it would bring most to tears.  It was amazing that none of them hated it.  They each claimed to have earned experience that no one elsewhere could get.

     Echo herself had never even witness what she would consider barbaric practices.  As an only child, no one denied her anything and her orders were explicitly obeyed.  The worst she had received was a slap on the wrist for picking up the wrong fork, and no one ever raised their voices in her house.  Her discipline was as strong as theirs, but they insisted that she was worthless without a strong voice.  And it seemed like today, they would test her.  Again.  She hoped she was wrong.

     “Thank you for taking the time to meet me here,” she said in her usual, sing-song voice.  Not one of them stirred, though Namid smirked slightly during her one-sided conversation.

     Echo tried again, hoping she could talk them into doing this another day.  “This is extremely important.  We really do not have time to work on such trivial details such as what you think a good leader—”

     “And then, the guy had MILK spurting out of his mouth!”  Namid shouted loudly, interrupting Echo and easily drowning out her voice.  Echo sighed.  She hated how they pushed her into this, even if she had tentatively agreed to it when their team had first formed.  They always did this when she felt she was being too polite or too quiet.  Even Sumi, which brought about its own kind of irony.  But then again, his voice was quite loud when he wanted it to be.  She took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders to aid in optimum projection.

     “ATTENTION YOU LOW-LIFE MAGGOTS!” she bellowed with all of her might.

     As one, Namid and Sumi leapt to their feet while Thomas hastily put his book away.  All three of them were grinning.

     “You are definitely getting better at this,” Namid said proudly.    
     “Can we please not do this today?” Echo dropped her voice to a normal octave; caressing her throat with tentative fingers to be sure she hadn’t damaged anything.

     In answer, Thomas pulled out his book and began to open it while Sumi started to slowly sink down to the ground.  Echo sighed once more.

     “Very well,” she mumbled.  Then, in a louder voice:  “PUT THAT PIECE OF SHEEP SKIN AWAY, THOMAS LAMB, OR I WILL MAKE A NEW ONE WITH YOUR HIDE!  AND GET YOUR RUMP OFF THAT GRASS BEFORE I PERMANENTLY IMPLANT IT THERE!”  They immediately complied, all standing at attention, enjoying this far more than they really had any right two.  Echo began passing back and forth before them, hands behind her back and chin up: exactly as they had taught her.  She went off on a list, not once waiting for a response, trying her best to mimic the so-called leader they seemed to want.

     “As you may have heard, an innocent young huntress-to-be has been enduring unreasonable hatred and bullying from our fellow peers,” Echo was finding it difficult to keep the bellow like voice and allowed herself to drop it down some without inducing what they called playful insubordination.  “Our task is to find the source of this mischief and bring it to heel.  Thomas, it is time to use your charm on the female teams and see if you can sway them to our side.  Namid, you hit the males up—do not make silly promises you do not intend to keep, either of you.  Sumi, you must establish yourself into a position that will allow you optimal eavesdropping ability.  Any questions?”

     “And what shall you be doing?” Thomas asked, only slightly mocking her dislike of contractions and love of proper speech.

     “I,” Echo stated, dropping the façade and relaxing her shoulders, “Shall pay a short visit to my beloved fiancé.”

     “Now I would love to see that!” Namid giggled.  Echo flushed slightly.  He was yet another person who demanded she explicitly follow specific expectations of behavior, but his expectations were far easier to adhere to.  Echo motioned for them to depart, preparing herself to hunt down her fiancé and speak with him on the issue.  It was at that moment that Sumi touched her arm.

     “You make it far too easy to let people control you,” he said sympathetically.

     “Not as easily as you think, Sumi,” Echo smiled sweetly as she smoothed the front of her skirt.  “I know that you three are trying to help me, but I truly need it not.  Most people are easier to manipulate when you give them what they think they want.”  She winked at him before politely moving past him for her part of the mission.

     What she had said was true.  She knew that her team was more worried about her and trying to get her to stand up for herself more directly, but it was highly unnecessary.  She humored them because she saw value in what they were doing and knew that it would come in handy in the future.  Not everyone was as simple as her fiancé.  All he wanted was a woman who was demure and subservient, while still intelligent.  That was easy.  Other people expected far worse and had to be led down the path she wanted in other ways.  Those were the difficult ones.  But her team?  They teased her because of her behavior and upbringing, but showed undying devotion to her as a leader, regardless of if they are pushing her to leave her comfort zone or letting her be herself.  Plus, she got to shout out words she wouldn’t normally say, and she found it to be a great stress relief.

     Echo paused a moment.  _Is it just me_ , she thought to herself, _or do they usually do this when they think I am under stress and need relief?_   She smiled at the thought, setting it aside for further consideration.  Right now, this sudden meeting with her fiancé would take all the strength and care that she could muster.

 


	20. Networking

     The smooth surface of the tempered glass window was cool beneath his finger tips.  Tarian had chosen to stand near the window to give the interviewee a feeling of security as Lily cross-examined him in her own way.  He never really understood why she insisted that he be there for the interviews with new recruits, but he never questioned it.  She had her own reasons, and since it wasn’t necessarily putting him out of his way, he complied.  The window, he knew, looked out into the hangar that had been converted to hold the artifact once it arrived.  He had been down there a few times with Lily and had walked around, memorizing the layout with his feet and hands and making note of anything that seemed like a security weakness.  So far, the room seemed fairly sound.  Four computer terminals ringed the central pillar where the artifact would be positioned.  There was a large door that would open up to the main hall that connected to the other hangar where the aircraft would dock.  It was now only a question of time.

     Behind him, Tarian could hear the low, soft to and fro of Lily’s tail.  It lightly brushed the metallic flooring, out of view of the potential recruit.  She was irritated to have to do this duty when the call from the pilot had come in announcing his imminent arrival.  A lookout had spotted the plane not far off, moving slowly across the sands at an altitude barely able to keep it out of the reach of the sand-dwelling Grimm.

     It had been Tarian’s miscalculation in informing her of the progress.  He had completely forgotten about the interview and was only focused on soothing her impatience.  Her level of professionalism would never allow her to let this distract her from her job, but her low-level annoyance was apparent to those that knew her well.

     Lily sat at her desk with the new recruit on the opposite side.  Tarian had barely noticed him, only taking in the form to know that he was a rat Faunus, his features were narrow and angular, and he was extremely nervous in the presence of the leader of the White Fang in Vacuo.  His teeth chattered with his anxiety, adding a jarring staccato to Lily’s swaying tail.  These interviews were generally short, and more of a personal requirement then a security check.  The new recruits are always rigorously checked and rechecked before being offered a position in their organization.  It had not always been that way, and Lily had had to do an in-depth purge to find the mole that had killed the previous leader.  This was all before Tarian’s time, so he was not familiar with all the changes that had occurred with all those years ago.

     “So tell me, Mr. Teller, what is it that you do?” Lily asked in a voice as sweet and gentle as honey.

     “I-I-I-I wa-wa-was a-a-an accou—accountant,” the man stammered in reply.  His voice was rough with a little bit of age, putting him somewhere within his forties.  Tarian had always found it fascinating to see how Faunus who were generally more rodent like were often far more intimidated by Lily than other Faunus.  It didn’t matter, though.  Lily would soothe their fears and soon win their confidences.  It was a talent that she used to advantage, a talent that Tarian had never been graced with.  He trained warriors, and he made sure that they hated him because that hatred meant they had a better chance of survival.  He never coddled anyone who chose to join the front lines, and his training was quite strict.  Those that had come on the heist had been graduated to the actual army portion of the organization, and had learned that the training would not let up nor get easier.  He refused to watch any of his troops die due to his negligence, and had caught one or two veterans singing his praise to the rookies because of this.  Perhaps it was because of these differences that Lily and he worked so well together.

     “Was an account?  Why do you use the past tense, Mr. Teller?” Lily asked, her voice tinged with concern.  “You seem like a man who loves numbers and would be most at home as an accountant.”  There was a rustle of papers as she said this, indicating that she was referring to his profile from the data collected on him.

     “Well,” he hesitated before continuing.  “I was a-a freelance accountant, you see.”  Already, he was warming up to Lily’s gentle, coaxing ways.  “I helped out Faunus who wanted to avoid the bad side of the law.”

     “I can imagine you received a lot of Faunus,” Lily said, the hint of a smile felt in her tone of voice.

     “That’s right!” the man said with pride.  “I was the best.  I even managed to get customers from the bigger firms.  And…and that was the problem.”  His voice sunk and Tarian could just imagine him wilting in his seat as he said this.

     “What do you mean?” Lily prompted.

     “One day, a large human came into my office with two even larger thugs,” Mr. Teller whimpered slightly at the memory.  “He told me I could close the office or he would close it for me.”

     “Not very subtle, was he?” Lily murmured dryly. 

     “I begged him to let me stay in business,” the Faunus continued in a whine.  “I have a wife and kids.  I have to feed them!  I promised to cut down my clients or do whatever he wanted if I could keep my job.”

     “What did this human say?” Lily asked, though her tone of voice told Tarian that she well knew what had happened.  The stories from every Faunus had a similar theme through them, and none of them ended well.  It was why so many were willing to join the ranks of the White Fang.

     “He laughed,” the man’s voice broke as if he were about to sob.  “At first, I thought I would be on the street—but then, something strange happened.  He offered me a job at his firm.”  That was actually hardly strange.  Most likely, the human would have him work at half pay, and he would get no credit for his hard work.  Humans did that all the time if they found talent within the ranks of the Faunus.

     “And what did you do?”  Lily knew the game well.  Tarian would have pointed that fact out immediately, but she knew that he needed to tell his story and feel vindicated.

     “I took the job,” Mr. Teller replied.  “What else could I do?  The pay was half the lowest wage at the firm, but it was still enough to keep my family safe and fed.  Projects came to me and if I had been Human, I would have been the star of the company the way I handled them.  But I never got the credit.  Not once.  And then, there was my neighbor in the next cubicle…”  He hesitated.

     “It’s okay, Mr. Teller, you can tell me.  What did he do?”  Lily’s voice was soft and friendly, a touch of sympathy aimed at helping him to finish his story.

     “THIS!”  The chair rolled back and there as a moment’s silence.  Tarian strained his ears, taking in each sound without once turning from his position.  It was most likely that the rat-Faunus was showing his tail, based on how the chair slid back as if he had stood up.  “Look at these scars!  The wretched human purposely rolled his chair over my poor tail every chance that he got!  At first, I thought it was an accident.  I tried to make sure my tail was near the window rather than his cubicle.  But any time it fell of its own accord into his path, he would roll back until the pain caused me to jump up and cry out.  Nobody cared!  My poor poor tail.”  Mr. Teller broke out in a tired, exasperated sob before gaining control of himself.  “To be sure, I let my tail fall so far back that it would be obvious he was doing it.  He took the bait, looked at me and winked.  _Winked_!  When I tried to take it to my manager, they somehow flipped it and made it seem like it was my fault!”

     Tarian heard the chair creak as the Faunus sank into it, choking back sobs of anger and pain.  It was a long moment before he continued.

     “Then, it finally happened.  They fired me.  Threw me out on the street, my family and me.  Oh, I was able to save up a bit so that we had a place to stay for a while, but as soon as the landlord found out I was jobless, he tossed us out without even giving us a chance to gather our belongings.  My wife with a babe and a young boy of six, and a useless, middle-aged man.”

     Lily’s chair always moved in an almost silent manner, perceptible to only Tarian and maybe a couple of other Faunus who had really good hearing.  She rose and the click of her heels told her that she was making her way to the new recruit’s side.  Tarian knew this scene as well.  She would place a hand on his shoulder, kneeling down so that she was at eye level to the speaker.

     “You are not useless, and you did all that you could in your situation,” Lily said gently.  “The fight against the injustice of those Humans is one full of hardships, and it cannot be done alone.  Justice will find those people who wronged you, and I shall see to it.”  A click filled the silence as Lily opened her little black book, followed by another which told Tarian that she had prepared a pen for the man.  “Write the names of those that have wronged you.  The owner of the firm, the name of the firm, and that particular gentleman who seemed so jealous of your beautiful tale.  Write any name you like.  I promise you that I will hold them all accountable for the wrongs they have done.”

     There was no hesitation on the part of Mr. Teller.  The scratch of the pen was quick and sharp as he wrote down name after name, the thud of the tip of the pen becoming stronger with each angry stroke.  After he had finished, Lily closed the book and returned to her seat.

     “Now to discuss your place here in the organization,” Lily said after giving Mr. Teller several moments to compose himself.

     “I ain’t any good at fighting,” the man said gruffly.

     “Of course not, Mr. Teller,” Lily replied.  “Not everyone is cut out for the front lines of war.  But our soldiers need support, and that is where those who can’t fight can be useful.  We have scientists and engineers, medical staff, cooks—just about everything that makes up a normal society.  With the White Fang of Vacuo, we do not throw you willy-nilly into the fray.  We want to win, so we put our members in positions that will utilize their strengths rather than their weaknesses.”

    “Wow, it seems like you have a whole city!” Mr. Teller was clearly impressed by this revelation.

     “We are fairly close to that level,” Lily confirmed.  “The networks of this old warehouse have been slowly expanded over time, allowing us to take in a large population of Faunus.  And one thing we need is an accountant who has strong skills in making money flow—but few scruples when dealing with…less than legal means.”

     “Legal?”  Mr. Teller scoffed.  “What do I care about law when it doesn’t care about me?  They use the law to persecute us every day: I know because I have seen it firsthand!  Why should I bow down to a law that was made only to advance Humans and to hold us down?  Scruples?  Not a drop.  I can probably find the mistakes you are making and fix them to close any holes.”

     Even Tarian had smiled.  They had been watching him for months after they had found his reputation.  It had been a chance find by one of the street urchins that lurked in parks and alleyways.  Young Faunus were good at ferreting out potential recruits that could fill the holes in their system, and Mr. Teller had been just what they were looking for.

     It was at that moment, while Lily was closing up final details with Mr. Teller, that Tarian had felt his scroll vibrate in his chest pocket.  He waited, paying close attention to the pattern that developed.  A long one, pause, three long ones, pause, a long and a short, pause, two short, pause, two long and a short, pause, four short, pause, a long one.  The vibrations stopped and Lily was showing Mr. Teller out the door with the aid of a guide to show him around.

     Tonight.  Manipulating his scroll so that the vibrations could be arranged in a Morse code to allow him to receive messages in any situation had been quite handy.  Now he knew that he could collect the package this evening, and he had plenty of time to prepare.  Lily had just come to stand beside him and let out a joyful sound as she pressed her hands to the glass.

     “Finally, it came!” she exclaimed.  Tarian had heard the sliding doors open, indicating that the large artifact was finally being escorted into the hangar.  For him, the timing couldn’t have been better.  Lily would be so consumed with the artifact that she would hardly notice him stepping out on a private errand.  His hope was to bring her one more gift before the night turned over to day; a gift that would bring that graceful, beautiful smile to her lips that had been absent for so long.  Even if he, himself, could never see that beautiful smile, he would be satisfied to know that it had existed once more in the world, even if for one fleeting moment.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Echo climbed the great stairways once more to the top tier of the academy, glancing around anxiously in the hopes of catching a glimpse of her fiancé before he had a chance to notice her.  During the afternoon, he had been in combat class and would have just finished.  He generally liked to lounge about on the upper tier until he felt rested enough to return to the dorms near the bottom of the academy.  As her pale eyes skimmed across the scene before her, they rested upon his hair, which shined like old fire in the blazing sun.  He was surrounded by his team and laughing about something, his large sword still strapped to his back as was his custom.  He did not believe in going anywhere unarmed.  He often said that there were enemies worse than Grimm and that he would prefer to be prepared for them.

     Weylin Grey, leader of team WITE and son of the richest man in all of Vacuo.  Most people, especially Onyx, had shown great sympathy for Echo’s arranged marriage to a man who, in their opinion, was an arrogant bully not fit to muck the stalls at the stables of her family estates.  Echo didn’t really mind the match, and felt that it was beneficial to her own desires.  She wanted to save her family’s legacy and reintroduce to the world the wonder and magnificence of the Dust Steeds.  The breed had fallen out of favor with the rise of technology, thanks to Atlas, and now only the folks that ran the caravans and a few nostalgic collectors ever inquired into the purchase of the beautiful steeds.  Echo was determined to show the value of the steeds and prove that they were still useful, and the Grey family actually agreed with her family’s goals.  The marriage would put the highly prized bloodline into the hands of a rich family that could provide the necessities of growing and expanding the stallions and mares.  Bringing the steeds back into the market would create competition with Atlas—something they had been fortunate to avoid, since they held a monopoly on most technologies.

     As it were, only a few nostalgic veterans and the caravan that crossed the desert showed any interest in the steeds.  Most people didn’t even know that they existed or how they differed from the average horse.  With her family’s dying legacy and dwindling resources, it was quite difficult to educate them.

     Weylin’s iron-grey eyes met hers across the court yard, and she immediately fell into the appropriate persona to win him to her cause.  In a flurry of skirts and wild, pale hair, she flung herself across the courtyard in a mad dash, tears glistening at the corner of her eyes.

     “Oh, my darling, my dearest love!” Echo cried out plaintively, falling gracefully to her knees before him and taking his hand in hers imploringly. “You simply _must_ do something!”

     “What is it, my angel?” he asked, taking up both of her hands in his and helping her to rise and sit properly on the bench beside him.  His team had immediately scattered upon her entrance, pulling back to a respectful distance lest they taste his outrage at their impertinence.

     “I just witnessed the most dreadful of things at the lunch hall this afternoon,” she cried, placing a delicate hand to her forehead.  “I feel that I should faint just to recall such ghastly behavior!”

     “You have but to tell me, my Dove, and I shall make all right with the world again,” he promised gravely.  Perfect.  He wasn’t even questioning her, which meant that her performance was satisfactory.

     “As I was leaving the lunch hall, I witnessed that poor new girl being harassed in the most ghastly of manners.  It was simple dreadful to see such an innocent and vulnerable creature enduring such hardships!  When I went to confront the scoundrel, they dared to justify their cruel actions based on horribly base rumors that had no scrap of truth to them.  Must such injustice stain this innocent girl?”  She gently waved her thin hands before her face to dry the tears that had managed to try to slip past her eyes.  It was a technique she had seen the ladies of the court do time and time again in an attempt to prevent the make-up from smearing down their face. 

     “I know of the girl you speak,” Weylin said magnanimously.  “She is but a simple creature.  Weak and non-threatening.  They will leave her alone eventually.”  Well, that wasn’t quite what she was looking for.  She would have to appeal to his sense of honor and obligation.

     “Then you side with the rascals!?” she exclaimed in utter shock.  “You support their malicious campaign against this poor girl!  Oh, the horror, that my love and light would help such cruel, evil shadows!”  She threw her face into her hands, sobbing delicately.

     “I would never support such rapscallions, my Love,” he chided her gently.  “But what more can be done.”

     “Then you care not that the rumors are getting worse and that others are planning to ambush the little mouse at the first chance they get,” she threw back at him with all the dignified outrage of an upscale lady.  His face finally darkened, showing that the sense of knightly justice would answer her plea.

     “Is this true?” he asked her.

     “I heard the rumors myself,” she said with a slightly haughty voice.  “They aren’t going to leave her alone.  They are going to attack this poor child who has no way to defend herself!”

     “What groups do you know of?” he demanded, taking both of her hands in his.  Echo gave him the names of the groups that she knew; amending that there could be others.  “All right, my dove.  Fret not about this unseemly business anymore.  I shall set it right for you and all shall be white in the world again.”  He brushed at her tears gently.  “Now show me that beautiful smile.”

     Through the fake tears, she flashed a brilliant and enigmatic smile that made him return the smile.

     “I am so relieved that there is still goodness in the world in the form of my husband-to-be.  I know that you shall protect that poor creature from the dark tongues,” Echo beamed.  She rose up and began to make her way towards the stairs, when Weylin called to her.

     “My Love, I myself have heard some disturbing tales,” he said casually, leaning back against the bench.  Echo stiffened slightly, but maintained her mask of pure, innocence.

     “Pray, what might you have heard, my Love?” Echo asked innocently.

     “I heard that you are still giving your time to that worthless thug, Onyx,” Welyin said coolly.  Echo paused, turning as if greatly embarrassed by the statement.  He was very much against her friendship with Onyx, and saw any fraternization with her as a direct affront.  She wasn’t about to give up her friendships for him, regardless of the contract, but she had to tread carefully.

     “Oh, My dearest,” she said, turning to him with imploring eyes and hands clasped before her in a pleading gesture.  “This academy can be a dreadful bore day in and day out.  Onyx offers me a measure of entertainment that I simply cannot attain anywhere else.  Surely you would not begrudge a lady for finding amusement in such a simple person, would you?  Besides, her family has always been a big purchaser of the Dust Steeds.  I must maintain good relations, at least for the time being.”  Throwing in money and business usually helped to smooth it over and grant her a little time before he mentioned it again.

     “I suppose,” he finally relented.  “Just try not to make too much of a habit.  I don’t want anyone calling my future wife a ruffian or scoundrel because of the company she keeps.”

     “Of course, my Dearest,” Echo gave a deep courtesy and rose up, turning quickly to escape his view and drop her mask.  “I will be late for class, my Love.  Until our next rendezvous.”  She turned once to throw a playful wink and toss out a kiss through the air, before dashing forward to one of the doors for quick concealment.  Once the door was closed, she dropped her shoulders and shook herself from head to toe to release herself from the persona she had worn.

     “Well, at least he can get those who are already involved to stop cold in their tracks,” she muttered to herself as she ran her fingers through her thick mane of hair.  “If the others have more information, I can sick him on them as well and close up this infernal rumor-mill for good.”

     After the coolness of the hall seeped into her skin and calmed her flushed features, she took off for the side stairs that would lead her back down to the lower tiers and the meeting with her teammates to compare notes on what they had found.  She certainly hadn’t lied to Weylin about her feelings on the situation.  She was horrified that people could so easily gang up on one so weak and helpless, and she was determined to protect that innocent girl as was the creed of the hunters.  And she was going to enjoy the outing tomorrow with Onyx and the girl on a whole different level, since Weylin was willing to condemn her choice in friends.  Maybe a few pictures to commemorate the occasion.  Just to add icing to the cake, she figured she would buy Onyx a present as a thank you for being her friend.  Sure, she didn’t mind the arrangement, but she still felt that her fiancé could be an unreasonable bigot at times.


	21. Flight

     True to her word, Onyx had shadowed Caelestis throughout the rest of the day.  She chattered on about the sights of the city and the different areas she wanted to introduce Caelestis to, building on her own excitement for the excursion.

     “Now that you have met the worst of technology, you can enjoy the best!” she had teased with a grin.  She was, of course, referring to the incident with the television.  Caelestis merely smiled, not willing to inform her that there were plenty of other technologies which terrified her far more than the television.  The idea of getting into a machine to travel somewhere was akin to walking into the jaws of a Grimm as far as she was concerned.  Those beasts flying overhead occasionally always gave her a dark foreboding, and then there were all the strange and deadly weapons that the students of the academy carried with them almost everywhere they went.  As far as Caelestis was concerned, the television was just a primer and had in no way prepared her for the things she had come into contact with since she had left the relative safety of the hospital.

     The evening was finally settling in on the city, and the various pathways had miraculously been cleared of all sand. There wasn’t even a hint of the storm that had passed by the night before.  Over the last couple of days, the journey down to the first tier had become a marker to Caelestis, signaling the end of a stressful day.  Caelestis had learned that there were two main dorm buildings occupying the tier.  Coming down from the second tier, the left side contained the dorms for first and second year students, while the right side contained the dorms for the third and fourth year.  Behind those, and closer to the base of the second tier were guest dorms for visiting students.  They were singular towers that stretched upward a little taller than the main dorms, which were only about 4 stories high.  The main dorms were in a horseshoe shape, with the courtyard and central pathway being well shaded by both sides of the building.

     Together, Caelestis and Onyx entered the building and climbed the stairs to the dorm room that Onyx and her team occupied.  Well, at least Onyx occupied.  Caelestis had yet to meet the mysterious third member, their leader was dead, and Gauri was in the hospital.  At the door to the dorm, they halted and Onyx threw the door open.

     “Listen, I need to pick up some extra things for our trip tomorrow,” she said.  “Plus, I want to stop in and see Gauri.  I haven’t visited her all day!  You’ll be safe here, so just relax and I will be back soon.”

     “You think Gauri hates me?” Caelestis suddenly blurted.  She wasn’t sure why she had asked that question, but it had been niggling the back of her mind since their argument.  Over the course of the last couple of days, she had found herself regretting some word choices and her uncontrolled anger at the time of their argument.  She still felt she was right, but she now felt like she could have chosen different ways to say what she had said.  The elder had often warned her of after-battle regrets: he had even told her that it happened whether it was verbal or physical, and that it sometimes took days before it hit.  Perhaps this was what he had been talking about.  Caelestis found Onyx gazing at her thoughtfully.  At last, she gave a shrug of her shoulders in reply.

     “Probably not,” Onyx grinned.  “If that was the case, she wouldn’t bother to speak to me about anything anymore.  Nah, you probably are pals now—you just don’t know it yet.”  Onyx gave a wink.  “I’ll tell her you said hi and see if she is open to seeing you again, if you want.”  Caelestis considered this offer for a moment.  She found herself really wanting to give Gauri a second change, but was also worried about being disappointed.  She knew that difficult situations often played tricks on people’s judgment, so Gauri could really be a good person deep down.  She had seen hints of it at times, and she was pretty sure that Onyx would not care so deeply about someone if they were malicious.

     “Okay,” Caelestis finally said.  If Gauri really was the arrogant, uncaring Grimm slime that she had seemed to be before, she would just cut all ties and be done with it.  It would probably upset Onyx a little that couldn’t be friends, if that turned out to be the case, but she would just have to understand that Caelestis didn’t want that kind of influence in her life.  Since Gauri was an important part of Onyx’s life, though, she felt that she should at least make an effort to give the woman another chance.

     “That’s the stuff,” Onyx grinned.  “I’ll be back later.  Just stay in this room, k?”

     Caelestis nodded, stepping into the room and closing the door tightly behind her.  Standing alone in the four bedded room was a little intimidating.  She had always come here with Onyx nearby and had yet to have been left alone there.  This would be her first time, and she wasn’t sure what to do with while she waited.  She already knew which bed was Onyx’s, and a rough guess told her that the one next to Onyx’s was Gauri’s.  All the strange objects that littered the shelves seemed to point to hobbies that Gauri might have enjoyed before her injuries.  It was an organized chaos, with everything in its place, but none of the items matched anything she had ever seen.  She saw a couple of tools here and there that looked familiar, and Onyx had often mentioned how handy Gauri was, so she assumed that it was hers.

     Caelestis was not sure about the other two beds on her left.  The closest one was of somber, sophisticated colors and had no shelving like the other two.  She had never seen the owner come to claim the bed, but assumed that it must be the mysterious Stav because it did look like it had been recently used.  The bed beside that had a thick layer of dust and was covered in cutesy trinkets that ran the gamut of kitten statues to gnomes with ugly faces.  Center stage on the upper most shelf was a framed photograph that had four figures, two of which were familiar to Caelestis.  She had been wanting to examine the photograph more closely, but had resisted the urge.  Asking Onyx about it had given the impression that it was a raw subject for her, so she didn’t push any further outside of figuring what the object was called: a photograph.  She had learned that it had been taken during the first year of attendance or the team and that was about it.

     After a few minutes of wandering listlessly around the room, Caelestis decided that she would attempt to clean a little.  She had seen Don do it enough times, and Onyx had been careful to go over the cleaners and detergents under their sink in the bathroom, warning her that mishandling them could lead to sickness and death.  The only say that seemed possible was if she drank it, so she felt confident in giving the ritual of cleaning a try.  She still hadn’t mastered reading, but she remembered two specific items that were used for dusting, so she decided to pull those out.  She started in the corner of the room near Onyx’s bed and got to work.  The process was fairly simple, and she was a little fascinated that removing the dust didn’t reveal new dirt.  She understood that she was cleaning man-made objects, but that didn’t eliminate her fascination.  Her whole life had been spent sweeping loose dirt off of dirt and moving sticks and stones out of the way for bedding and storytelling.  The fact that something could be cleaned and stay cleaned was still a little new to her.

     Caelestis continued to move around the room, working carefully on Gauri’s bed so as not to disturb the items on the shelf.  She would meticulously pick up a single object, wipe it down and the area it had been in, then place it back down again.  Some objects felt too soft for any kind of dampness, so she settled for wiping the area it was in before setting it gentle back in its place.  It was a slow process, but by the time she finished, the shelf top seemed to sparkle.

     “This is kind of easy,” she said to herself as she cleared away the dust from more shelves and hard surfaces.  When she had finished with that side of the room, she turned to face the side with the two unknowns.  A chill ran down her spine as she looked at that side of the room.  Stav’s bed had no shelving and seemed fairly neat and clean, and she was happy to dismiss that one from her cleaning.  The low, cryptic tones that Onyx and Gauri had used when mentioning their other teammate had made her feel like touching anything belonging to her would result in instant death.  Instead, she turned resolutely to the bed of the deceased leader and looked it over.  The blankets seemed to be of a thick material that would allow for using her dusting cloth.  Experimentally, she wiped the cloth over the top cover to see if it would work.  The bedding was smooth, not at all like rough wool or cloth.  It seemed like this method would somewhat work, but that another way would need to be employed later.  After a couple of attempts, she dismissed the bedding as impossible and turned towards the shelving. 

     As with Gauri’s shelving, she had to brace a knee on the bed to reach the shelving, and did so with the utmost care.  One by one, she lifted each statuette and trinket to dust it down and wipe under the place beneath it.  She had saved the photograph for last, carefully lifting it from its spot to smooth off the dust and dirt that had seemed to collect upon the silver frame and smiling faces.

     Caelestis paused in her cleaning, her eyes drawn to the images in the frame.  All four girls looked extremely happy and united in the photograph.  Onyx was at the center of the photo, her grin the widest and brightest of the bunch.  One arm resting on the shoulder of a young woman whose appearance startled Caelestis for but a brief moment.  The sides of her head had been shaved with a design on one side that she couldn’t quite make out.  From the center of her head sprouted a long mane of hair striped pink and with hints of green.  Several earrings glittered from her ears, a stud in her lip and nose.  On her right arm was a large tattoo that ran down the length to her wrist.  Her left arm also had a beautiful floral tattoo of what looked like roses.  It ended just above her elbow, it seemed.  Beside this warrior-like woman with the warm, welcoming smile was an extremely tall blonde woman, who was leaning in close to the two.  She had a small, sad smile upon her lips, a dark contrast to the warmth of the Mohawk lady and Onyx.  On the other side of Onyx was Gauri, though she would have hardly recognized her.  Her lavender eyes shone from a cloud of thick, coiled locks and healthy golden skin.  She had a small, knowing smile upon her lips as she looked out towards the camera.  Gauri was surprisingly smaller than Caelestis had expected, coming up to around the pink-haired woman’s chin or so.  Caelestis found herself reviewing each of them in turn over and over again, caught up in the extreme height of the blonde woman and finding herself extremely curious about the woman with pink hair.  She was so absorbed in the photograph, that she never heard the door open.

     The only warning she had was the sharp intake of breath.  Caelestis turned to the door to see a giant woman, taller than any she had ever seen, charging at her like an enraged bull.  In her hand, a long, slender cane was brandished threateningly over her head.  Caelestis fell backwards from the bed, the photograph crashing to the floor as she stumbled backwards towards the wall.  The first blow fell across her shoulders, knocking her to the ground.  The woman spewed out words of anger and hatred, words that made no sense to Caelestis’ frightened mind.  Another blow landed, cracking against her skull and knocking her senseless for several precious moments.  Her body reacted instinctively to the attack, curling into a tight ball to protect her more vulnerable areas.

     “Stop!” Caelestis pleaded, sobs of pain making it difficult to form the simple word.  The blows fell like rocks upon her, cracking her bones and bruising her skin.  The angry screams of her attacker deafened her, blocking out all other sounds.  Words jumped out at her, but had no meaning.  Caelestis tried to lurch left or right, but was immediately cut off by the unrelenting stick that felt like lead upon her.

     And then, she could no longer feel the blows upon her trembling body.  She knew that they were still falling, for she could feel the vibration caused by their impact, but the only pain she felt was left from the earlier strikes.  She heard the _thwacks_ and _cracks_ of the stick and the muffled curses of the assailant, but all was dark and cool where she lay trembling.  Her pleas for mercy were lost in an incoherent sobbing, the roots of the language she was learning thrown completely out the window.  Her greatest fear had come to pass: that one of the students that had been watching her with hateful eyes would finally come after her.

     “STAV!”

     The world seemed to freeze in that moment.  The blows halted and silence filled the void that had previously been filled with curses.  Caelestis did not waste another moment.  As soon as she was sure she had a chance, she bolted forward, propelling herself from the wall and sliding between the only opening she could see: between the splayed legs of the assailant.  Without missing a bit, she scrambled to her feet and flew out the open door, hardly paying any attention to the dark figure that had been standing there.  Faster and faster she ran, pumping her legs for all that they were worth and demanding more speed from her weak and battered body.  A sticky warmth trickled down the side of her head, warning her that she was bleeding from one of the blows, but she ignored it.  Her only thought was to escape.  She had to get away from the danger.

     _Fly, fly!_   She urged herself on, drawing on whatever reserves she could.  The world flew by her in a whirl; details lost in blurred lines of color as she descended stairs and passed out into the open air.  She saw none on the pathways, but would not have wasted her breath in seeking asylum from any passers-by within the academy.  She knew only one thing: she wasn’t safe here.  She had known that for days now, ever since that first incident: but she had believed that Onyx would fix it.  Now, she wouldn’t wait.  _Couldn’t_ wait.  No one in their right mind would stay where their life was in danger, and she was certain that this was the case for her.

     Caelestis knew the general layout of the campus as far as going up the tiers was concerned, but had never gone down to the ground tier before.  She vaguely recalled it when she had first come to the campus, and she clung to that misty memory, searching for any detail that would help her to escape.  _Gotsa scape…gotsa ken a haven…_ She flew.  She could think of no other word to describe it, for her feet seemed to never touch the ground.  And then, before her, she saw the tall arches that had signified her entry into this life.  She was almost there, almost free, almost safe.  The mad woman wouldn’t follow her out into the city.  Neither would all of those other people that had begun harassing her here at the academy.  She would be safe as soon as she left that place.

     Closer and closer, the archways rose before her and filled her vision until they were all she could see.  And then, without warning, her body gave out.  Her legs became numb, causing her to crash to the ground, tumbling forward several feet to place her directly outside the gate.  Her lungs burned with each attempted breath and her vision swam before her.  Pain erupted over every inch of her body, flaring more intensely were she had felt the blows of the tall madwoman.  Caelestis grabbed at her chest, desperately gasping for air and struggling to gain her feet again.  She wasn’t safe yet.  She had to get away.  The instinct for survival overcame all logical thinking and locked her into one single path: escape.

     “Are you okay?” came a deep, masculine voice from behind her.  She turned blurred eyes to a tall figure with long, pale green hair and large ram-horns sweeping around the sides of his head.  His eyes were hidden by the deep shadows of a brimmed, rustic hat, but she could feel the concern in his eyes, even if she couldn’t see them clearly.

     “I…” she gasped, a cough rattling her entire body.

     “Hey, take it easy,” he said, kneeling down and putting a hand to her back.  “Take a slow, deep breath.”  Caelestis did so, letting it out slowly before taking another.  Belatedly, she recalled the medicine and her bag, which she had left in the dorm room during the attack.  From experience, she knew that she could bring some level of control to her breathing, but it would take time and she didn’t want to wait for the search party that would inevitably pursue her.

     “I is…they is…breathe…” Caelestis gave up trying to give any explanation, turning all of her intention to controlling her breathing and ignoring the man completely.

     The stranger looked her over carefully, touching a finger to the blood that was streaming from her temple.  Without a word, he took out a kerchief and began to dab at the blood carefully, his jaw set into an angry grimace.

     “Did those Humans do this to you?” he asked in a dark tone.  Caelestis managed a nod, still unable to gather her wits.  Stav was _a_ Human, as far as she knew, and many of the other Humans at the academy would have done the same, she was sure.  Still, she wouldn’t have generalized it as he seemed to have done.  The man held the kerchief tightly in his hand for a moment, then used his other hand to pull out a scroll similar to the one Onyx often used.  He pressed some things on the screen and then brought the device up to his face so that it was covering from his ear to his mouth.

     “Yeah, I am ready to come home.  Bring the car around immediately,” he said sharply into the phone.  Caelestis froze, her trembling body suddenly turning to ice.  Before she had a moment to think, the stranger had gathered her into his arms and was carrying her down the street towards a car that was slowly approaching.

     “I…is…nay nay, I is fine…” She gasped, still unable to calm her breathing or even struggle properly against him.  _I is damn helpless,_ Caelestis scolded herself angrily, hating her weak body all the more for the position it seemed to have placed her in.

     “Those damn Humans have hurt you pretty bad,” he said in response to her feeble protests, obviously struggling to keep his anger in check.  “You need help, and a safe place to stay.  I know where you can find both.”

     Caelestis fell silent.  He was right about that, but she wasn’t so sure she trusted him any more than the people she had just left.  She was beginning to understand that randomly trusting strangers was not an option in this society, but she was also helpless to do anything about it.  Within moments, she was in the vehicle and heading towards a new destination.  Exhausted from fright and over extending herself, she found herself sliding unwillingly towards slumber.  Her final thoughts drifted around the hope that it would have better results in her new destination.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Stav hardly recalled what had happened.  Everything was a blur.  She remembered that she had returned to the dorm in the hopes of turning on Kale’s scroll and preparing for another observation of the con-artist and Onyx.  The rumors around Caelestis were spreading like fire, and most agreed that she was the reason the White Fang had attacked during the storm.  She was giving them intel, helping them to break past security and aiding them in breaking down the campus’ defenses.  Some whispered that she had been part of the raid that night, but Stav knew that this was unlikely.  Her position was to be a mole in their defenses, so she would lay low and continue to seek their sympathies.

     She had been mulling over new information when she had reached the dorms, completely lost in thought as she made her way up the stairs and to her room.  The moment she had opened the door, everything went white.

     The rage that had shot through her had been like a volcano, erupting throughout her entire body and burning away all consciousness.  All she saw was white hot rage.  All she felt was a thirst for blood; and at the center of that fury was Caelestis, half kneeling on the bed of her beloved leader and wearing her clothing.  She had even performed the sacrilege of touching the one good photo remaining of Kale and their team.

     “You sick, conniving, piece of fecal matter!” Stav shrieked as she charged at the startled woman.  Her body moved on its own accord, the words flowing like a torrent from her mouth.  “Bloody White-Fang spy!  You can’t have it!  You can’t have my team!  You can’t replace her!  I WILL NEVER LET YOU!  DIE YOU PIECE OF SCUM TERRORIST!!”  Curses spilled forth without pause as she threw all of her rage and pain at this unwanted intrusion into her life.

     Everything happened at the speed of light, and within moments she had cornered the girl against the wall, beating down upon her with her cane mercilessly.  And then, her cane suddenly crashed down against a thick, earth-like wall that had solidified around her target.  Enraged, Stav beat down harder upon the makeshift shield, trying to tear away the earth that prevented her from reaching her victim.  The earth was almost as solid as stone, but marks were left upon the surface with each strike.

     “I KNOW WHY YOU CAME HERE YOU LYING PIECE OF—”

     “STAV!!”

     That single world brought the whole world to a grinding halt.  Stav froze in mid strike, her eyes widening in horror, but still locked upon the earthy mound that signified the location of her target.  Then, Caelestis burst from the shell like a butterfly from its cocoon, taking off at lightning speed to flee. 

Stav found herself unable to move as her mind grasped the raw details of the crime which she had committed: the crime against herself and the promise she had made to Kale.  Every muscle was locked tight and the grip on her cane was turning her knuckles white.  She turned slowly to face the speaker of her name, half expecting to see Kale’s ghost, only to find instead a terrified Onyx.  There were tears in her eyes, glistening like crystal in the light of the room as she stared at Stav.

     “Who are you?”  Onyx shook her head in disbelief, backing away towards the door.  The words cut through Stav like a knife, knocking the last leg out from under her and throwing her into a world of self-loathing.  Her whole life flooded around her, filling her inner wounds with acid.  She was losing everything and there seemed to be no rope to keep her from falling towards the abyss.  But Onyx did not stay to see.  She fled the room after Caelestis, calling out her name in a desperate attempt to bring her back.

     Time was crawling around Stav.  Each movement she made felt like an eternity.  The blink of an eye, the trembling lip, all seemed to take up hours.  Her eyes turned to the cane still clutched in her hand.  There were smatterings of blood upon the head where she had struck at Caelestis, marking the reality of the monster she had become.  It had not been a dream or some deranged delusion.  The cane fell from her lifeless fingers, clattering to the floor.  An eternity passed before her knees finally felt the rough carpet of the floor.  Another eon passed before her hands made contact as well.  And then, the damn of time was broken as she let out an ear-piercing wail.  Stav clutched at her sides, sobbing into the carpet like a broken child lost to the world.  She could see everything so clearly now, the whole twist of her personality and stains that marred her soul, and it terrified her.  She had become everything she hated, had been drifting there for some time, and had never done anything to stop it.  Was there any redemption for the child of a devil?

     _“You choose who to be,”_ Kale had once told her during a private talk about family and inherited traits.  “ _You can be a knight in shining armor or the villain that drives the hero, but the choice is yours.  Personally, I just want to be the one who helps the hero.  That is a simpler job.  I won’t let my family shape me into what they want, though.  They wanted me to be the hero, but that isn’t who I wanted to be.  They were all heroes; all great warriors and I was supposed to be like them.  But I wasn’t and I’m not.  This is who I am, and no one will change that.  I like who I am.  If I didn’t like it, then I would change it.  How about you?  Who do you want to be?  Who are you now?_ ”

     Stav fell silent, her face soaked from her tears and her throat hoarse from crying.  _Who are you now_?  The last words of her little speech echoed in her head.  She had never answered Kale at that time, yet her mind had given one single word: a monster.  At first, she had assumed that Kale was naïve.  You couldn’t change who you were.  Could you? 

     All her life, she had been terrified of becoming like her father.  Tonight, she had become that which she had hated the most; but did she really need to succumb to her own prophecy?  Maybe…if she started doing the things her father would never do, maybe she could stop herself from following in his footsteps.  But where to start?

     Well, the first was the most obvious.  He would never seek out redemption or forgiveness from the person he had wronged.  Even though Stav firmly believed that Caelestis was the traitorous spy that the rumors painted her to be, she had been unarmed.  Enemy or not, that was unacceptable to Stav.  She considered the earthen shell as instinctual, or at least designed to look that way.  It was merely defensive, though, and there had been no attempt on Caelestis’ part to return the attack.  Stav accepted this as her being in the wrong: attacking someone who could not fight back.  She had to gain some kind of forgiveness from Caelestis, even if she still wanted to send her back to the hospital in pieces.  Her personal code of conduct required that her enemy had a fighting chance.  She would have to make things right somehow.  She had to find the girl and make amends for this crime because her father would never do such a thing.  Then she had to deal with the demon inside her.

     Stav pushed herself to her feet with some effort, staring down at the cane and her top-hat, which both lay upon the floor on either side of her.  Even from that distance, she could see the spots of blood upon the cane.  Tossing back her long, straight hair, she wiped at her face with her hand to clean it of some of the tears, and then made her way towards the door.  Any kind of forgiveness was probably impossible, but the act of trying would set her leagues apart from her old man.  At this point, that was the only thing she could think of.  Her brain was such a mess at the moment that everything else just ran together like water.  For now, she would just focus on that and see what it would get her.

    


	22. The Chaos of Stav's Soul

     Stav found herself out in the cooling night air within minutes, her amber eyes scanning the scene for a hint of either Caelestis of Onyx.  Immediately, her eyes fell upon the gray-clad figure of her teammate, stumbling towards the stairway to the second tier.  Stav sprang forward as soon as she spotted her, inducing just a little bit of her semblance to help her span the distance more quickly.

     “Onyx, wait!” Stav cried out, reaching out her long arms to grasp Onyx’s upper arm.

     “Don’t touch me!” Onyx shrieked.  She violently wrenched her arm free of Stav’s grasp and stumbled backwards a couple of paces.  “Don’t come near me!  Don’t even _speak_ to me!  I can’t…” She threw her hands to her side, her beautiful dark face sparkling with the tear tracks that traced down to her chin.  With each word she said, she gesticulated wildly, tossing her arms about as if trying to throw the words into the wind.  “Everything is just _wrong_!  Kale’s dead, Gauri’s gone, Caelestis ran off and you….you…”

     Stav let her arm fall to her side, her desperate face clouding over into a cold, unfeeling glare.

     “Say it,” Stav dared her, the iciness of her voice lost on the almost hysterical girl.

     “It shouldn’t _be_ this way!” Onyx cried out imploringly.  “How could you beat someone who had no way of defending herself!?”

     “She’s part of the White Fang!  It is all just an ACT!!” Stav shouted.

     “I can’t believe you think those rumors are true!  Stav, you are better than that!”  Onyx had wrapped her arms about herself, squeezing her eyes shut for a brief moment.  “None of that was true!  None of it!  How could you—”

     “How could _you_!?  She is obviously playing you all for fools and you swallow it like it was candy!” Stav no longer cared about her thoughts of redemption or hope.  Her face was now twisted into a snarl of anger, her eyes shining with hurt.  “We’ve been together for over two years—and you drop me like garbage for someone you have barely known for a week!”

     “She needs help!”

     “She needs to be thrown in a prison!”

     “You know nothing about her!!”

     “NEITHER DO YOU!”

     The two stared at each other from across an enormous gulf.  As far as Stav was concerned, whatever bond they had had was now shattered beyond repair.  She found herself floating alone in the world once more, facing the very rejection she had feared and unwilling to admit that she had brought it upon herself.  Inside, she reached out for Onyx, pleading to be heard through her own rabid anger and unable to even soften the brows of her grotesque mask of rage.  No matter how hard she fought, she found that she could not overcome herself.

     “If you can’t believe me, then why not the headmistress?  She completely accepted Caelestis without hesitation!”  Onyx brushed at her tears, clearing her face and trying to grab at some semblance of control.

     “She’s wrong.”  Stav was done.  She didn’t care anymore.  She had hoped to find some support, some help from Onyx, but it was obvious that this was not going to be the case.

     “Why don’t you try asking her why she accepts Caelestis before making any snap judgments,” Onyx shot back.  “I’m done.  I don’t want to see you, not until you stop being a…a…”  She couldn’t do it.  Turning on her heels, she fled up the stairs as fast as she could go, her skirts flapping wildly behind her in her flight. 

     “A monster,” Stav whispered as she watched her teammate vanish over the top of the stairs.  The more pain and fear she felt, the more vicious her snarling mask became upon her face.  Without her cane, she found her hands balling into tight fists at her side.  _Go after her, you fool_ , Stav told herself.  She did not move.  _Don’t give up—you **know** you are wrong and she is right.  Go after her!”  _ Still, she did not move.  Her inner monologue could not break through to the surface of her flaming armor.

     “Stav?  Is that you?” a soft, delicate voice asked from behind her.  Startled, Stav turned to find Echo staring up at her.  She took a step back in reaction to the venomous face that now faced her, then her features softened.  “Are you all right?”

     At first, Stav didn’t know what to say.  Despite her fears presentation, Echo did not hesitate to identify that something was wrong and ask about it— **exactly** what she wanted Onyx to have done.  For just a brief moment, it gave her a sparkle of hope to cling to: and then she tossed it aside.  Echo was not of her team and she hardly interacted with the girl.  Most likely, it was just her being polite and she didn’t give to flicks of a cat’s tail what was going on.

     “I’m fine,” Stav growled, turning away from the petite woman to storm back towards the dorm.

     “Have you seen Onyx?” she called after her.  Stav froze.  Without a word, she gestured up the stairs.  “I hope I can catch her.  It seems we have finally gotten to the bottom of this rumor-mess.”

     “So you believe that crap, too, huh?” Stav sneered.

     “I believe nothing,” Echo said serenely.  “I have absolutely proof that it was a horrible hoax by someone who had ill intentions from the start.”  Stav snorted and started off again.  She didn’t like spending too much time in Echo’s company for fear that she would recognize her.  It wasn’t likely, as they had run with different crowds during their youth in the walls where the rich citizens dwelled.  Still, it was a possibility and one that would only make things worse for her if Echo did manage to put two and two together.  It had actually surprised her that her name hadn’t tipped Echo off.  She had not gone to any great lengths to conceal or change her name: the legalities behind such frauds were quite bothersome, and she had been so certain that she would not meet anyone from the walls.

     To her relief, Echo did not seem to be that interested in her and had gone off in the opposite direction, after Onyx.  Stav managed to make her way back to her dorm room without meeting anyone else, and tightly closed the door behind her.

     The room was as silent as a tomb, her top hat and cane still in the same positions she had left them.  The drying blood shown far more brightly then it had any right to, almost in a mocking manner. 

     Pushing away from the door, Stav walked gingerly around the two objects and stood before the fallen photograph.  It was upside down with shards of glass glistening in the light.  Bending down, she gingerly picked up the photograph by the edge of the frame and turned it over.  The left corner was cracked, a large whole exposing the photograph and spider-web lines spreading over the smiling faces.  She considered taking the image out of the frame, but was worried about further damage to the photo.  Instead, she set it carefully on the bedside and bent down to pick up the more obvious shards of glass that littered the floor.  As she was picking up the last few pieces, a dark shape caught the corner of her eye.

     Turning, Stav saw that a medium-sized backpack was leaned up against the wall, tucked into the corner formed by Onyx’s bed and the wall.  It was partially open and Stav could just make out something oddly grayish color within it.  It wasn’t gleaming or shining, but more of a matte object that stood out in the darkness of the corner.  Curiously, Stav rose to her feet to investigate the foreign object.  She paused just briefly at a small wastebasket to empty her hands of the shards of glass she had collected, then knelt down beside the bag.

     It was obviously a worn bag, scratched and damage from misuse.  Most likely, it had belonged to Caelestis as Onyx wouldn’t be caught dead with such an unattractive bag.  Carefully, she pulled the bag open the rest of the way and gasped.  Sitting on the top of a pile of beads and a worn old book was a mask.  It was the mask of the White Fang, worn by members who were far enough above the level of recruit to warrant the blood-red markings that were painted upon this one.  It was still a half mask, rather than a full one worn by the lieutenants and other higher personal, but it was still a mask that detonated the wearer’s level as being important.  It was the precise kind of evidence she had been looking for!

     Gleefully, Stav securely closed up the bag and hefted it onto her shoulder.  She started for the door, pausing to glance at her hat and cane.  For a brief moment, she considered putting back on her hat and taking up her cane again.  It was the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach that still lingered which prevented her from doing so.  She ignored them and continued on out into the hall, walking quickly past the dorms and down the stairs until she hit the courtyard outside.  Here, she paused and cast her gaze around to be sure the way was clear.  She could see no sign of Echo or Onyx, or anyone for that matter, and so pressed on.  As much as she would have loved to use her semblance again like she had earlier, she did not.  Her semblance was not based around speed, and she had not yet mastered movement with her semblance.  She knew it was possible based on her training, but it was taxing and rarely worth it as far as she could see.  It involved projecting herself forward in a way where she was keeping pace with each movement while they were enhanced and that was difficult.  She had made a lot of progress before Kale’s death (and at Kale’s urging) but had completely halted all progress since then.  Instead, she opted for the lifts which were quite speedy and rarely used.

     The nearest lift was not far from the dorm rooms.  It was a simple, metallic platform that was attached to a rail track of some kind and ran up the side of the tiered wall.  There were no hand rails or walls to keep someone from accidentally falling off, a fairly imbecilic oversight of the creator; so many students didn’t use it.  It also moved very quickly, making it hard to keep your balance on it.  Many students had complained of the unsafe contraptions, but the school had not removed or remodeled them.  In fact, many classes used riding them under various circumstances as a required assignment.  Fourth years had to hold a match on the damn things as part of their graduation requirement.  Stav couldn’t imagine when or where such a skill would be needed, but none of the staff seemed to have a problem with it.  It was probably one of those “I did it when I was young, so now I get to enjoy you suffer the same way I did” kind of thing.

     Despite all of its flaws, the lift was a fairly smooth ride for the most part.  Fast, but smooth.  Within minutes, Stav was at the top of the tier and moving on to the next one, watching warily for any signs of Echo or Onyx.

     In no time, she was at the door of the headmistress’ building and heading towards the elevators up to her office.  The whole building was dark, but she was quite sure that the headmistress would still be awake.  She may not be happy to be intruded upon, but once she saw the evidence, she would pat Stav on the back and praise her for a job well done.  Stav smiled to herself proudly.

     The night view from the highest level of the academy was magnificent.  City lights twinkled like stars on earth, the main street a river of light up to the walls of the city.  Stav admired the view for a few precious moments, and then turned to the door to the main office.  To her surprise, the door was cracked open.  Cautiously, Stav approached the door and peered in through the opening.  The view was a straight shot to the desk at the far end of the room, and a familiar head of midnight black hair blocked her view of anything else.  Onyx had already come to see the headmistress about the incident.  Stav sword and started to back away when she remembered the bag in her possession.  She shifted the bag on her shoulder, gathered her courage, and pushed open the door.

     All eyes turned to Stav as she entered unannounced into the room.  Grillo stood beside Azura, his cold intellectual eyes glaring at her sudden intrusion.  Echo was near Onyx offering her comfort.  She had glanced up at Stav as she entered, only to return her attention to her friend.

     “I was expecting you, Stav,” Azura said calmly as Stav walked the distance to the desk.  Onyx had remained where she had sat, refusing to turn her eyes to Stav or even acknowledge her existence in the room.  Stav returned the courtesy, pushing past Echo and unceremoniously dumping the contents of the bag onto the desk before Azura.

     “Proof of how stupid you have all been,” Stav announced with some annoyance.  Beads rolled along the clean desktop to clatter to the floor.  The book had fallen with a soft thud while the mask had clattered into place just to the left of it.  Azura picked up the mask and turned it over in her hands. 

     “I see,” Azura said more to herself.  “So this is the Grimm Man’s mask.  I believe she said he name was Corin.”  She set the mask down carefully upon the desk and looked up into Stav’s astonished face.

     “No—what?  No!  That is _her_ mask!  That is proof that she is part of the White Fang!”  Stav gripped the bag tightly in her hands, her face starting to flush with embarrassment and rage.

     “All it does is corroborate her story,” Azura said calmly.  “The mask is far too big for a face like hers.  Of course, if you had stopped to look at her, you would have seen that, Stav.”

     “They don’t _measure_ for masks, Headmistress!  This is hers!  Look—it was in her bag!”  Stav shook the bag in the face of the headmistress.

     “Stav,” the headmistress said kindly, yet firmly.  “Please take a seat.  I am going to clarify a very important point for you.”  Grillo had already brought a seat around on the other side of Onyx.  Onyx had stared in silence at the far wall the whole time, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears like flecks of mica glitter in dark stones.  The only sign of her emotions was in her hand, which was holding tightly to Echo’s.  As soon as Stav sat down, Onyx scooted her chair a short distance away.  Even Echo was giving Stav an appraising look.  _They are all on her side!  None of them will listen to me!_ Stav growled angrily to herself.  She felt helpless and isolated, as if the whole world were set against her.  Stav angrily folded her arms over her chest and slouched in the chair, allowing only one glaring eye to turn towards the headmistress as she spoke.

     “There is a very good reason as to why I believed Caelestis, even before she arrived here,” the headmistress explained.  She picked up the burnt-out fire dust crystal that had merely plopped onto the desk and turned it over.  “I knew her.”  There was a moment of shocked silence.

     “But how is that possible?” Onyx stuttered, leaning forward with her hands on her knees and her dark hair tumbling over her shoulder.

     “As I have said, I was not always a headmistress,” Azura replied.  “I worked out in the field on various missions when I was younger and more foolish.  During that time, I took a contract with some Atlesian scientists.  Grillo, myself, and several others huntsmen were acting as guards for scientists as they explored the continent that Caelestis came from.  Caelestis was quite young when we made contact with her tribe, so she most likely has no recollection of having seen the strange foreigners that came to their lands.  The Elder was a wise man, but a fool.  He refused our aid because of his fear of the unknown ‘magic’ that we possessed, but he did not turn us out without helping us.  Whether he knew it or not.”

     Azura turned away from her audience for a moment to look up at an image of a woman with a lizard or snake-like creature encircling her head as if trying to protect her.  It was engraved into the stone in an old style reminisce of ancient times.  The protecting creature had red glowing gems for eyes, while the angelic being seemed to have almost transparent gems or metal, like pearl or silver.

     “There are some things I regret from my youth,” Azura said softly.  “The theft from that tribe was one of them.  An image like this one was found in the cave where we took the artifact.  It was a closely guarded secret that only the Elder of her clan and one warrior knew of.  I managed to get a picture of the image so that I could someday remake it as a reminder of my stupidity.  When she recognized this image, without any prompting or reason to do so, she confirmed her identity to me.  If her story is true, then she is the only other person in this world who has a chance of figuring out that artifact—if their legends are true.”

     Azura turned her attention back to her silent listeners.  Stav just stared, her mouth partially open in shock, unable to gather all of her thoughts.  She had been so certain that the girl was a fraud, and part of her demanded that she still believed it.  A million stories ran through her head as to why the headmistress would be lying, but none of them were strong enough to push Stav one way or the other.  She had no clue about what the artifact was, but she was certain it was the reason for Kale’s death and started incorporating that thought into the possibilities for the headmistress misleading them, but her desperate attempt to make herself _right_ was interrupted by a soft voice.

     “What is this ‘artifact’ that you speak of, Headmistress?” Echo asked politely.  It was the first thing she had said since Stav had entered.  She had almost completely forgotten that she was there.  The headmistress let out a sigh and rubbed at her temples for a moment.  For the longest time, it seemed like she would not answer.

     “It is…the reason all of this has happened,” Azura said carefully.  Grillo made a move beside her, as if to stop her from saying more, but she waved him off.  “No, Grillo.  It is only fair.”  She folded her hands neatly upon the smooth surface of the desk and leaned forward.  “What I will tell you stays in this room, do you understand?”  Echo and Onyx immediately nodded, but Stav merely glared at the headmistress.  She was already not liking where this was going.  She had already figured out enough of what the artifact was on her own and she really didn’t feel like hearing the headmistress make up any kind of justification for what it had led to.

     “Stav,” Onyx said sharply.  Stav glanced at her teammate for a moment, surprised that she had been addressed.  Onyx was not looking at Stav, her dark eyes fixed solely upon the headmistress while she still held tightly to Echo’s hand as if it were a lifeline.  Stav snorted in contempt, more for herself and what she had reduced Onyx to than anything else, and then nodded.

     “The artifact is a dangerous relic of the past, a hodge-podge of Dust Crystals melted together in order to either preserve or encage something.  We are not sure what.  We are also unsure how it was made.  Melding the dust crystals like that, as far as we know, is impossible.  The implications of this artifact are unimaginable.  Leaving it there for anyone to pick up could have resulted in some megalomaniac bringing the kingdoms to their knees.  So, those Atlesian scientists and hunters and I decided to take the artifact into custody.  It took years of preparation, and we have been studying it for just as long.  We still haven’t been able to figure out anything about it.  We can’t destroy it, either, as far as we can tell.  The amount of energy generated by that crystal shield has prevented any attempts at even scratching it.”  There was a moment’s silence as the implication of it all sank in.

     “So…it was made by a god?” Onyx asked in an awed whisper.

     “I’m not one to encourage such talk,” Azura said with a shake of her head.  “But it certainly seems like it, and that is what their legends maintain.  Their legends say that every generation, a warrior is born who could well release whatever is inside of it.  Some of the legends say that it is so the warrior can ride with their goddess once again.  Others say it is so that the world can be… _cleansed_.  It could be that the great warrior of legend never existed, or that they died during the Grimm attack that finally ended their line.  Or…”

     “It could be Caelestis,” Onyx finished for the headmistress.

     “Well, that settles the matter,” Onyx shot an angry, I-told-you-so glare at Stav as she rose to her feet.  Perhaps if Stav had been sounder of mind, she would have noted that there was no hatred or disgust: just anger.  Justifiable anger.  “We have to find her before the White Fang do.  She is helpless and knows nothing about them.”

     “You are right,” Azura nodded.  “However…I think that we are too late.”  Onyx was already heading towards the door to renew her search, but the headmistress’ words stopped her in her tracks.

     “Why?” she demanded simply.  Echo was just catching up to her and put a reassuring hand to her shoulder, almost instinctively. 

     “Because I think the reason she left was orchestrated by them,” Azura said.  She hit a button on her computer and a large projection screen dropped down.  Azura frowned at the low technology, but said nothing.  An image began to play on the screen of a man, a Faunus, with mule-like ears and unassuming brown hair.  He was tall and lanky, and energetically urging a small pair of students to move so that he would be standing just outside of the camera.

     “That’s Don,” Onyx said instantly.  “What about him?”

     “So you have no trouble recognizing him?” Azura asked curiously.

     “No, why should I?” Onyx frowned in puzzlement.

     “Well, that is unimportant,” Azura dismissed the question.  “The point is that you recognize him, which helps us a bit.  He was the _actual_ spy for the White Fang spreading rumors about Caelestis being the spy for the White Fang.  Most of the people he has spoken to can’t seem to identify him, they just remembered someone giving them ‘undeniable proof’ that she was the spy.”

     Onyx returned to the desk quickly, leaning forward with her hands on the glossy surface as if she were about to leap over it.  Her face was contorted with disbelief and fear.  “Why would he do that?  He _liked_ her!  He even gave her flowers!  He was just a bumbling idiot!”  Stav was not sure why there was this sudden burst of emotion, but it made her pause.  What was it that Onyx knew about Don and Caelestis that made her so anxious about his betrayal—if that was what it was.

     “Apparently, that was precisely the image he wanted to cultivate,” Azura turned off the image and had the screen return to its slot in the ceiling above.  “We don’t have many details.  He seems to have already left the premises.  We have suspicions that he might have been the same one that hacked into our security systems, but we have no proof yet.  Given the events of tonight, it is safe to say that his primary target was Caelestis.”

    “Which means,” Onyx sat down heavily in her chair again, a look of dejection passing over her face.  “They already have her.”

     “Most likely,” Azura said unapologetically.  “We will review any footage for the last hour and see if we can determine if she is still on campus or not.  If she isn’t, we can assume that she is already in the hands of the White Fang.  There are a couple of cameras near the entrance and along the wall that surrounds the school.  We will check those as well.”

     Onyx was sitting in her chair, nodding absently to the headmistress’ words.  Stav cast a furtive glance over to her, taking in her lazy movements and drooping eyes.  _She blames herself_ , Stav realized.  Rising to her feet, Stav abruptly she stood and made for the door without a single word.  No one called to her to stop or even seemed to care that she was leaving.  As she left, she made sure to slam the door as hard as she could.  She stalked over to the large windowed view of the city and pressed her hands up against the cool glass.  Somewhere, out there, that girl was hiding or being held.  Rescuing her would, as far as Stav was concerned, right the wrong she had committed earlier and free her of any debt of reconciliation with the little usurper. 

     “I hate you,” Stav whispered softly to the city, hoping that somehow the words would reach her.  She pushed away from the glass and turned towards the elevator, her emotions twirling in her mind.  Her mind had been made up.  Onyx wanted the little imp back safe in the school, and even the headmistress was more concerned about recovering their little treasure and the possible key more than anything else.  Fine.  If that was all they wanted, all they cared about, then she would help them reach their goals.  After that, she wasn’t sure what she would do.  Returning home was suicidal, and she wasn’t sure she was quite at that point yet.  Perhaps she would just leave the school, or even the city and try to hide herself in some isolated hole outside the kingdoms.  Who knew?  At this point, she didn’t care about anything anymore.  Her emotions had died down, sinking back into the pit of her soul and leaving her feeling empty and numb.  There was only one thing she knew for certain, and that was that she was alone.  She had no friends, no team.  She had no one, and never would.  And what pained her the most was the knowledge that was all her own fault.


	23. Gift from the Sentinel

     In the center of the lab room, where the soft murmur of voices drifted like a secret breeze, Lily sat leaning against one of the desks and peering intently at a screen, her eyebrows drawn together in concentration.  She had swept her hair into a French braid to keep it out of the way and had changed into more comfortable shoes and clothing for her long vigil in the room.  Every scientist, engineer and personnel with any knowledge that seemed useful had been brought in to examine and work on the artifact that they had finally obtained.  Some were sent back to their original jobs when it was determined that they would be of no use; others remained if there was even the slight chance that they could provide some expertise on the multi-colored jewel within the room.  Many, like herself, pored over file after file to see if there could be anything gleaned from the previous research of their enemies while others hovered around the artifact like moths attracted to the flame.

     Several of the files they had procured had held promise, but many had been outdated notes that were proven wrong in future documentations.  At the moment, Lily was trying to extract one particular document that had been sent from the headmistress of the school herself.  It had been encrypted and locked with a password, and so far she had been unable to pull the secrets from within.  Anything that well guarded simple had to be important, and she had ignored everything else in favor of trying to unlock the file.  Sadly, coding and hacking were not her strong points. 

     Leaning back in her chair, Lily stretched her arms up to the ceiling in an attempt to relax her stiff shoulders.  She let out a deep sigh and returned to a normal sitting position, her tail swaying to and fro as she thought the problem over in her mind.

     A sudden hissing sound drew every eye to the door.  It was a sound that seemed as loud as a cannon in comparison to the almost-silence of the room.  Tarian entered the room.  He stopped not far from the door, his head turning in a scanning motion through the room.  Lily watched with some interest.  Most people, when looking through a crowd for someone, would attempt to crane their head up to get as much height as they could without having to resort to rising on their tip-toes.  It was something she saw even tall people do occasionally, so it struck her as odd that this average-height man was standing as if waiting for the bus, his face facing in one direction and moving in a slow, sweeping motion across the room.  If it wasn’t for the movement of his head, she wouldn’t have even noticed he was looking for anyone.

     After watching him for a short time, Lily rose to her feet to make her way to him.  As soon as she moved, entire head swiveled in her direction and just stopped.  It was a strange sensation, not like someone had locked on to her because she couldn’t see the eyes, but it was eerie to watch.  His body came into alignment with the direction he was facing and he began moving towards her as she moved towards him.  Briefly, she wondered how that blind scan felt to the new recruits.  She imagined it was somewhat nerve-racking for unblooded solders.

     “Tarian, just who I wanted to see,” Lily said brightly as their paths met.  “I need your hacker-spy.  We have some files that we can’t seem to crack, and they seem pretty important.

     “Very well,” Tarian replied.  “Come with me a moment.  I have something to show you.”  The request was quite unlike Tarian and took her by surprise.  Tarian was not a person to make requests, so they tended to sound more like orders, even when he was being polite.

     “We are really busy right now, Tarian,” Lily answered, biting down on her instinctive reaction to scold him for his seeming impertinence.

     “It will only take a moment,” Tarian insisted without changing his tone or his stance.  Lily glanced back to the computer terminal she had just sat at.  After a moment, her eyes drifted to the artifact in the center of the room and then scanned the several personnel that were working diligently on the problem at hand.  She _had_ been there for several hours, and a small break might actually be beneficial…

     “Very well, but don’t take too long,” Lily relented.  “I have a lot to do.”

     “It won’t take long,” Tarian assured her, turning to lead the way to the door.

     The two of them entered into the hall.  Tarian took an immediate right and led her in a winding path towards the new recruits’ quarters.  It wasn’t too far from the training center, which lay more within the center of the abandoned warehouse.  Within a few minutes, they were crossing the bridge that overlooked the now-empty fighting pit used for sparring and weapon practice.  After several more winding turns, Tarian stopped before a non-descript door.  Lily frowned.  This was where the new recruits slept before they were fully incorporated into the organization and given positions within their society.  Why he would bring her here was beyond err.

     “Why are we here?” she asked, a slight tinge of annoyance in her voice.

     In reply, he gestured for her to open the door.  “Don’t make too much noise,” he warned in a gruff whisper.

     Frowning, Lily placed her hand on the metal knob of the door and turned.  It opened easily enough, but that was unsurprising.  Despite its old age, the entire warehouse was well cared for and many places had been remodeled to work more efficiently.  Quietly, she moved the door open so that it was just a crack and peered into the room.  Lying on a utilitarian bed, her hair splayed across the pillow and hanging off the sides, was the girl from the desert.  She seemed to be in a deep slumber, her head bandaged around her temple, indicating some kind of injury. 

     It was all Lily could do to keep from squealing with unveiled delight.  Just as carefully, she closed the door and began to move quickly away from the room.  Tarian was right to insist on quiet.  They needed to plan how to approach her before she awoke.

     Lily moved quickly back the way they had come, taking turn after turn at almost a jog, her excitement making it impossible to keep a normal pace.  At last, she came to her office door and practically dashed inside.  Tarian had remained close at her heels, his long legs able to match her energetic steps with little difficulty.  Once within the quiet walls of her office, she turned to Tarian with a beaming smile.

     “When? How?  Why!?” she asked, seemingly all at once as question after question bubbled up into her mind.

     In response to her question, Tarian closed the distance between them in several quick strides until he was standing scant inches from her.  His face was tilted down towards her as if attempting to gaze into her eyes.  Lily was shocked at the sudden proximity, never having known him to stand more than a foot near someone.  At this distance, she could make out the distorted scars on his skin that traced down his neck.  She knew only a little about how those scars came to be, but only because she had dug into his past.  It was something he refused to talk about, and she didn’t blame him one bit.  As far as Lily knew, it had happened when he was around thirteen or fourteen years of age and involved some kind of acid.  To this day, she didn’t know how bad the damage was or even where, and she respected him enough not to press him about it or seek out the answers herself.  She would love to add those bastards to her black book, move them right up to the top, hunt them down and string their guts to cacti, though.

Another thing she noticed, to both her surprise and confusion, was a thin veil of gauze that had been attached to his hat’s rim to veil his upper face like a half-mask.  The thin material was much like what was used out on the deserts to shield travelers from the glaring sand.

     And then, the moment was gone.  He moved past her as if he had never intended to be so close in the first place, and went to stand by the window.  Lily reached up and touched her flushed cheeks.  She wasn’t quite sure what had just happened, but it had made her very nervous and confused.  Neither of them spoke for a moment or two, each giving the other time to collect themselves after that strange interaction.  It was Tarian who at last spoke.

     “My spy was doing double duty,” he said in reply to her questions earlier.  “He kept me informed of her status and any information he could get on her until we could work out a way to pull her away from the academy.”

     “Why is she injured?” Lily asked, recalling the hint of white wrapped around her head.  Tarian’s stance stiffened.

     “That was not supposed to have happened,” he said in a low, angry tone.  “I specifically told the spy that she was not to be injured.”

     “If we injured her taking her out, that might cause problems,” Lily ventured as she took her customary seat at her desk.

     “We are fortunate that this was not the case,” Tarian explained.  He at last turned to face her, if it could be called facing anything.  Lily was beginning to suspect why this was the case now.  “His job was to make her aware of how unsafe she was.  The fact that she truly is Faunus made his job much easier.  Maybe a little too easy.”  His hand tightened into a fist at his side.

     “What did he do?”

     “He dropped rumors to get as many Faunus-haters against her as possible,” Tarian said shortly.  “When he found out about the team she was staying with, he was able to tailor his lies to focus on one specific member.  The result was her going ballistic on the girl and driving her out of the academy.”

     “But that is wonderful!” Lily laughed, clapping her hands before her in delight.  “It just drives home the point of how dangerous those damn humans are.  It will be much easier to manipulate her this way.”

     Tarian said nothing to this, instead turning back to the window to fume in his own, silent way.  Lily began to pull the pins from her hair and undo the braid, shaking out strands here and there as she carefully worked her way through each section.

     “Who was the team that she was staying with?  Is there anything we should know about them?” she asked as she worked at her hair.

     “It’s a small world, Lily,” Tarian answered.  “She was staying in the hospital room of the girl you…disabled.”  Lily paused with most of her hair undone, staring at Tarian for a moment of disbelief.  When she saw that there would be no retraction or correction, she smiled mischievously.

     “Oh, really?” she purred in delight.  “How interesting!  I can’t believe that other girl survived after what I did to her.  I expected her to die shortly after.”  Tarian turned his head ever so slightly, just enough to allow her to get the impression of a very angry scowl upon his face.  She resumed her attentions to her hair as she continued.  “What more do we know of those meddlesome students?”

     “He did a thorough background check of the three living teammates,” Tarian replied.  “Gauri Brigh: extraordinary hacker and extreme genius in most mathematical and scientific endeavors.  She’s the one whose arm and leg you blew off.”

     “Ah, so she is the brat of those traitorous Atlesians,” Lily mused.  “I hope you got one of your spies to tail her.  She could come in handy yet.”

     “Already done,” Tarian said through gritted teeth.  He was obviously not appreciating her light humor.  “The next is Onyx Laverna.”

     “Her family and their caravans have been both helpful and annoying,” Lily said with a wave of her hand.  “She is of no importance.  Who is the last one?”

     “Stav Seshat,” Tarian said crisply.

     Lily sat up straight in her chair, throwing her hair back over her shoulder.  “Stav?  Seshat?”  She rose from her seat.  “You’re kidding, right?  No, of course not.  You can’t tell a joke to save your life.”

     “You know her?” Tarian asked curiously, his fire starting to cool a little.  She knew it would always be there, but he was good at pulling himself under control.

     “You could say that,” Lily said absently.  “I can’t believe it… Didn’t even change the name.  That’s just arrogance.”

     “What?” Tarian asked, not quite catching what she said.

     “Nothing,” Lily said.  She cast a curious glance towards Tarian, wondering if he had somehow missed the obvious.  He had turned to face her again, but his half-hidden face was unreadable.  Most likely, he noticed but would not say anything unless she did.  That was just as well.  She didn’t feel like divulging in her past at the moment.

     “Is there anything else you wish to know?” Tarian prompted.

     “Was this Stav the one who attacked her?” Lily guessed.  Tarian nodded.  Lily smiled more to herself as she lost herself in a moment of thought.  Tarian was silent, merely waiting for her to decide when she was ready to continue the conversation, but obviously not happy about some of the things they had already spoken of.  “Where are her stances now?”

     “Unknown,” Tarian said automatically.  “She showed awareness of growing hostility as well as fear, but seemed to trust this Onyx explicitly.  It wasn’t until the attack that she decided to flee, if it can be called a decision.  She passed out in the car on the way here, apparently drained.”

     “I see,” Lily twirled a lock of hair around her index finger in thought.  “So we have to win her over more and convince her of the evils of Humans.  I want you to warm her up a bit, get more information.  Do whatever you have to do to convince her that we are the good guys, got it?  I will interview her like I do all new recruits, but I want to wait a couple of days at least.”

     “Very well,” Tarian agreed.

     “What else do we know of our guest?”

     “She knows little about technology; she has the ability to use her aura in an uncontrolled way, but only when put under extreme stress—”

“Or extreme concentration,” Lily interjected. 

“I suspect that she had utilized her aura and maybe her semblance during her flight, hence her collapse.  She cannot read nor write, but she is a determined student.  Very observant of things around her, too.”

     “Your spy got all of this?” Lily asked in surprise.

     “He managed to get a bug into the room she was staying in after she left the hospital, so he could hear most of what went on.”  Tarian paused as if he was considering if he should say something.  “Manipulating her might not be that easy,” he finally added.

     “Why?” Lily demanded.

     “She seems to have a very strong moral code,” Tarian explained with only the slightest hesitation.  “If she witnesses some of the things we do…”  He left the rest unsaid, but Lily understood what he was implying.

     “Then we will just have to make sure she doesn’t see those things, at least until we don’t need her anymore,” Lily stated matter-of-factly.  “We pulled some emails from the computers in that tower as well, and I suspect a couple of them were about this girl.  Did we get her name, by the way?”

     “Caelestis.”

     “As I thought.  That was one of the names mentioned in the email with the encrypted attachment.  That means that some of these files might have some information on her as well, if she is as important as I suspect.  Until we know for sure how badly we need her, we keep her in the dark, is that understood?”  Tarian nodded.  “Good.  We will have to be careful.  If she feels imprisoned, she might suspect something—but if we give her too much freedom, she might find something out.  Assign someone you trust to keep an eye on her, keep me informed of anything she says or does.  After we figure out our little enigma, we will revise our plan.”

     “Very well,” was all Tarian would say.

     “If your hacker-spy is available, send him to the lab,” Lily said as an afterthought.  “We need better brains on these encryptions.

     Tarian gave her a swift salute and turned to leave.  He stopped at the door for a brief moment as if he wanted to say something more, then decided against it and left the room.  Lily sat in her chair, leaning back so that she could stare up at the cold, steel ceiling.

     “Stav, huh?”  She closed her eyes, bringing up the face as she remembered it before quickly dismissing the image from her mind.  “Of all the team leaders I had to kill, I had the privilege of destroying yours.  That, my friend, is Karma.”  She let out a small chuckle.  In one smooth motion, she pushed herself out of the chair and moved over to the window to look out at the crown jewel of her achievements. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     Caelestis tried to remain relaxed and still as she heard the click of the door before it silently swung open.  Her eyes were closed, but it was obvious that light was coming in from outside of the room.  She fought to keep her breathing even and slow in an attempt to mimic deep sleep.  The light lasted only a moment before the door was closed with a second click and the sound of footsteps led away from the room.  Softly, Caelestis let out a breath and opened her eyes to stare up at the darkness.

     She was terrified.  She admitted it to herself in the darkness, holding the thick blanket up tight around her.  Alone, in a cold dark room with no windows and no light, somewhere in a building that could be anywhere on the planet: she was beyond terrified.  What if she was going to be sacrificed to some horrible gods, or put to slave labor, or…a million scenarios played out in her head, causing her to get more and more anxious.  _I shall have nay lefted, imbecilic._ , she groaned to herself.

     Caelestis turned on her side and curled up into a ball, closing her eyes and trying to return to the oblivious of sleep.  It refused to come, instead filling her mind with angry thoughts at her own incompetence.  When she should have fought, she had cowered.  When she should have stood her ground, she had fled.  Every choice she had made seemed to have made her situation more unpredictable, and probably worse.  She was angry at herself for not even trying and she desperately wanted to redeem herself in her own eyes.  _Shall have nay kenned the learning.  Fightin ised the lighter ken_.  Caelestis sighed and blinked her eyes a little to clear them of the moisture that was beginning to form at the corners.  Already, she was missing Onyx’s honest and kind face, and even wished to see Gauri’s condescending smirk.  This constant dilemma of unknowns was wearing her thin.

     In the dark, Caelestis sat up and threw away the covers off to the side.  She rose to her feet and stood uncertainly in the dark room, staring into nothingness.  After a moment, her Faunus heritage started to kick in and she could make out the dim outline of a desk near her, giving her only a little room between that and the bed.  She turned slightly until she was facing the very thin outline of the door and then stood there, thinking.  The woman had come at her from that direction and she had fallen backwards.  She moved, miming how she had reacted for a moment, then straightened in thought.  Obviously, what little she learned about fighting Grimm would not necessarily apply to fighting a Human, but there had to be something she could have done better.  Probably not falling to the floor would be number one on the list.  She maintained her stance this time, crouching slightly and bringing her arms up to protect her face as if the cane were crashing down towards her once again.  That seemed like a better tactic, at least, but she would have had to have been more aggressive.  Perhaps a punch to the midsection?  The woman had been quite tall, which meant that her stomach would have been fairly open to her.  Again, Caelestis fell into the half-crouch, imagining the woman shrieking and throwing her cane at her left and right.  She twisted her body from the hip, letting her left hand fly out towards the imagined opponent.  After a moment, she straightened again with a frown.  It was probably better than what she had done, but it felt incomplete, like it wouldn’t have been enough.

     The door suddenly clicked and swung open, allowing a flood of light into the room.  Caelestis blinked in surprise, half-blinded by the unexpected brilliance that hit her eyes from the halls outside.

     “Are you hungry?”  It was the same masculine voice as the one who had brought her here, and he seemed to be pretty sure that she was awake. 

     “Yea,” she said hoarsely.  The man entered with a tray of food, flicking on the lights of the room and taking two long strides until he could set the tray on a desk.  He was fairly close to her now, and casually sat down within the nondescript chair paired with the desk.  With the light on, Caelestis could get a good look at her surroundings.  There wasn’t much, really.  The room was spartanly furnished with the bed she was on, the desk he had put the food on, and a tall box with two small doors that stood off in the corner in front of her.  As she had already known, there were no windows, no carpeting, and no shelves or decorations.  Near the ceiling was a large opening that had a grated covering, but she saw that more as a hole for monsters than any kind of decoration.

     “How are you feeling?” He asked, relaxing into the seat.  Caelestis reached up a tentative hand to touch the bandage on her head.  It was a little sore, but seemed to be healing well enough.

     “Okay,” she replied mechanically.

     “It was a nasty crack to the skull, but no lasting damage,” the man informed her.  “The impact cracked the skin a bit, is all.”  Caelestis nodded.  “My name is Tarian.”

     “Caelestis.”

     Tarian sat before her, his eyes shadowed by his hat and his arms relaxed at his sides.  For a long time, the two of them just seemed to sit there and weigh each other against their own personal scales.

     “Where is I?” Caelestis asked, casting a glance to the cold, unfeeling walls.

     “You are safe,” Tarian answered.  “With the White Fang.”

     White Fang.  She had heard that name before.  People saying she was part of the White Fang was why she had been attacked, if what Echo had said was to be believed. 

     “Why is I here?” Caelestis asked carefully.  She knew that she should be trying to use the language she had learned more, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care anymore.

     “Because this is the safest place for a Faunus,” Tarian said simply.  “Attacks on Faunus like you experienced are common.  We take those in that we can.”

     “They says the White Fang is the Grimm,” Caelestis countered.

     “Yes, they would,” Tarian replied calmly.  “And yet, they did this to you.”  Caelestis fell silent. He wasn’t wrong about that, but she also knew how evil both sides of any conflict could be.  It wasn’t uncommon for tribes to slander and befoul the names of others to make themselves look better.  Years of observation and experience had taught her people the truth of each of those clans, allowing them to wade through the lies and find the truth of a situation.  Now, she was in a situation where she had no knowledge of who was telling the truth or not.  So far her only experience had been with the academy.

     “Why can I nay see ye eyes?” Caelestis demanded.  Tarian stiffened, lifting a hand to his hat.

     “Another time,” he rose quickly from his seat.  “When you are ready, I will take you on a tour of the facilities.”  He left before she could say anything further, leaving her feeling confused and lost.

     Caelestis cast her gaze to the food that sat before her, the aroma of food tickling her appetite into existence.  She took the now-vacant seat and turned her full attention to the tray.  It was a lovely setup of meat and vegetables with milk beside it, not very different from the food she could get at the academy.  She picked up the fork and took an experimental bite of one of the vegetables whose name she didn’t know.  In that brief moment, the hunger in the pit of her stomach flared up and she soon found that she had devoured the whole tray of food within moments.  Quietly sipping on the drink provided for her, she considered her options.  _Yea.  No more study.  First, fight.  This world is dangerous.  Also, watch.  See who is truthing and who is nay.  Then ken it._   She nodded to herself at her own simple and straightforward plan.  There really wasn’t much else she could do.  Until she knew where she was and the layout of the place, she was pretty much a prisoner anyway.


	24. Corin's People

     “That is a very nasty habit, young cub,” came a low, disapproving voice.  Tarian didn’t move from his sitting position on the decayed stone roof of the warehouse.  He took another long drag on his cigarette to make his point, allowing the burning nicotine to fill his lungs before releasing it out into the wind.  With some reluctance, he snuffed out the tip of the cigarette on the rough surface of the roof near where he was sitting.  .

     “I’ll quit when we are in a better world, Old Lion,” Tarian said in annoyance.  He blew off some sand from the burnt end and pulled out the carton to save it for later use.  He had hardly had a chance to light it and was not about to waste something as difficult to get as a cigarette.  It wasn’t a habit he could easily indulge in, either.  Due to the enclosed space and poor ventilation of the warehouse, smoking was strictly forbidden to everyone.  There were designated areas that led outside or were close to openings that would keep the smoke from poisoning the air, but they were few and far between.  Besides, he had no desire to share his space with anyone.

     “That may be a long time in coming,” Squall said.  He took a seat beside Tarian with an effort, the creak of his old bones preventing him from gracefully lowering himself down as one would have expected.

     “Well, then, I have something to pass the time,” Tarian replied as he replaced the carton back into one of the inner pockets of his duster.

     “I am surprised to see you in such a foul mood, Tarian,” Squall observed, his rolling Rs standing out a bit more than usual.  “How did the experiment go?”

     Tarian sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.  “I saw it…it was a little vague, so I had to move up close to see it clearly, but I saw it.”

     “Well, that is good, then” Squall said, clapping a hand on his shoulder.  “Why the long face, then?  Is it about the new recruit?”  Tarian sighed again, this time more heavily.

     “Yes,” he muttered.

     It was a sticky situation for Tarian, though not one that he was unused to.  He often found himself torn between his personal morals and his loyalty to Lily.  Tricking her, even by just ignoring what everyone else would do and say, was not something he approved of.  Everyone should be able to make a fully informed decision about how their life goes and why.  What Lily proposed took away the girl’s ability to make that decision, and he didn’t like it.  On the other hand, more and more evidence was piling up indicating that they needed the girl if they were to have any semblance of success.  He would much prefer less obfuscated measures to win the girl’s trust, but Lily was adamant that this was the only way.

     “I have asked you this many times before, and now I ask you again: why do you stay when you are so conflicted,” Squall said with a hint of sympathetic, fatherly tenderness.  “I know the answer is always the same, but is it worth this inner turmoil to you?”

     “Most of the time, I would say yes,” Tarian sighed and rested his chin on his hands.  “You have been like a father to me.  I would follow you into hell if I had to.  I made that choice when you introduced me to the White Fang.”  It had been one of many decisions he had made without thinking, but refused to regret it.  He hated most of what the White Fang had become over the years, and his very instinct told him that he should leave like Corin did—but instead, he stayed and stood strongly beside the cause, regardless of how little believed in it.  First, it was for Squall’s sake, and then for Lily’s.  He felt more trapped now than ever before.

     “That was many years ago,” Squall said nostalgically.  “You truly were young then.  Not more than thirteen, I believe?”

     “Almost fourteen,” Tarian corrected.  “It was not long after the…incident.”

     “And all these years, you still refuse to discuss it,” Squall scolded gently.  “These shadows will burn you the tighter you hold them.”

     Tarian pushed himself up to his feet and crossed the short distance to the edge of the roof.  The wind was cool and refreshing, despite the blazing heat that enveloped them.  He closed his eyes for a moment and let the cool wind caress his cheeks and brush the hair near his eyes.  Then, he opened his eyes again and turned towards where he remembered Squall sitting.  He hadn’t heard him move, so he assumed that he was still there.

     “I can’t lie to the girl, not in this way,” he confided in his friend and mentor.

     “That is what I thought,” Squall sighed.  He heaved himself up with a grunt and closed the distance between Tarian and himself with a few quick steps.  After a pause, he put his heavy hand upon Tarian’s shoulder.

     “Even a blind, old Lion such as I can see that,” Squall said with a smile in his voice.  “The young are always lost, no matter how many years they gain.  Bring the girl to me and let me see what I can bring out of her.”

     “You are learned in many tricks, Old Lion,” Tarian frowned.  “But how is it that you think you can win her trust.”

     “Because, unlike you, I keep no secrets.”  Squall gave a knowing wink.

     Tarian was taken aback by the statement.  It was true that his biggest concern was with the fact that Caelestis had immediately latched on to his desire to hide part of his face, but he had not mentioned it to the old Lion.  He had not thought it was that much of a concern and that she would eventually give up on it.  Apparently, Squall thought otherwise.

     “With each experience, you will learn more and see more,” Squall said patiently.  “But only if you stop ignoring what is right before you.  That is the one thing that holds you back, Young Cub.  I can teach you techniques.  I can give you advice.  But I cannot make you See.”

     Tarian put a hand to his hat, pulling it further forward as he contemplated the words Squall had shared with him.  He understood, on some level, but did not want to understand.  It was implying that he should share with others things that were none of their business.  It was not important if he chose to conceal his face; part or whole.  What mattered was that he got the job done.  Caelestis did not need to trust him: she needed to trust Lily.  That was all that mattered.  His mannerisms were his own choice and no one had a right to demand anything of him, **especially** not some strange girl.  The thought made him a little angry, but he quickly dismissed it.  It didn’t matter.  There was only one person who had any right to ask such things of him.  If he were to reveal anything to anyone, it would be to her and her alone.  And he was not ready for that: not yet.

     “I will bring the girl here,” Tarian said roughly, moving towards the door.

     “Bring her the long way,” Squall called after him.  Tarian raised his hand in a farewell wave to acknowledge that he had heard Squall.  Perhaps others would see the gesture as cruel to a man who could not see, but Tarian knew that Squall would know.  Squall had his own tricks that he revealed sparingly to his only pupil.

     Tarian made his way through the halls, taking the shortest route towards the new recruit rooms.  The afternoon was wearing on and the shifts were changing within the steel walls.  The hum of voices as groups of people made their way to recreation or new shifts echoed in the larger rooms that he passed and seemed more condensed in the narrow halls.  Whispers seemed louder than they were because of the small space and acoustics of the halls.  When he at last came to the door of the new addition to their group, he paused.  It was a moment’s hesitation that outlined how unsettled he was by everything involving her.  Entering into the room meant that he was agreeing to the plans that Lily had and whatever it was that Squall would do.  Entering the room meant that he was putting himself at risk of invasion.  Once he crossed the threshold, there was no going back and no regrets.

     Slowly, he raised his hand and rapped on the metal surface.  After a moment, he turned the handle on the old door and pushed it open.  The choice had been made.

Caelestis was standing in the middle of the room as he had found her the previous evening, her face glowing with exertion as if she had been running.  She was turned to face the door, her face clouded over in distrust.  It emanated from her in sharp, bright rays that felt like needles upon him.  Behind the safety of the rim of his hate, he glowered.

     “I’ve come to show you around,” Tarian said more gruffly than he had intended.

     “All right,” Caelestis replied stiffly.

     Tarian turned back down the way he had come, the quick patter of Caelestis’ feet indicating that she was falling in line behind him.  He led Caelestis through the halls, starting the way he had come and then veering off on one of the main halls.  Occasionally, he would make a point about this room or that, but for the most part was silent as she trailed behind him.  He led her onwards through the maze.

     “Cafeteria,” he gestured to a large door down a hall as they walked.  “Kids” was another hall where a small school had been started for families that had joined.  She made no reply as she followed him, no questions about anything and only the occasional “hmm” to indicate she had heard him.  Tarian wondered how much of this she actually understood and didn’t want to give too many words to confuse her and make her more distrustful.  He figured she knew what a cafeteria was since she had eaten there at the academy a couple of times, but wasn’t sure if she knew what a school was, or an accounting firm, or a store, or any of that.  So he continued with his simple, one-worded explanations as they walked.

     Their awkward pattern continued until they reached the long bridge that spanned the length of the open training room.  Since it was afternoon, there were many recruits training below the bridge, their grunts and battle cries ring out from below every now and then, broken every now and then by the clang of metal as weapons met in sparring matches.  The noise created a soothing rhythm to his nerves and allowed him to relax a bit more as they crossed the center of the bridge.  It was at this point that he noticed that her pattering footsteps had fallen silent behind him.

     Turning, Tarian found Caelestis’ form leaning against the railing of the bridge, her head extended forward to look down at the combatants below.  Long tendrils of hair cascaded over her shoulder in knots of tangles, silvery strands shimmering vaguely in the dim lighting.  Tarian raised an eyebrow to himself and leaned his back against the waist- high railing, waiting to see if she would have any questions or comments.  It was the first time she had shown any interest or curiosity since they had left her quarters.

     “Do ye ken...”  Caelestis began before stopping herself.  She straightened from the railing and faced Tarian with a level of determination that surprised him.  It was as if she had suddenly made a decision, an important one that changed her demeanor almost entirely.  “Do you know Corin?”

     “Corin?” Tarian was surprised.  So it was true, that she had met him, but what had led her to that question.  “How do you know Corin?  Why do you think I know him?”

     “It’s the same,” Caelestis said, gesturing towards the trainees below them.  Tarian didn’t to look because he knew what to expect below them.  It was easy to deduce that she was talking about the mandatory uniform the trainees were wearing: the whitish sleeveless jacket, black hood and pants, and the Grimm-like mask that had become the uniform of all White Fang members five years ago.  The masks had poor vision, so he compensated by making sure they could fight while wearing them.  They only ever had their people wear the masks in specific situations because most of their work was undercover, though.

     “Was Corin wearing his mask when you met him then?” Tarian asked curiously, guessing that this was what had caught her attention.

     “Ye,” Caelestis replied.  “Yes.”  She bent at the railing again to look back down at the recruits, her long tangle of hair hanging over her shoulder.  Angrily, she brushed it back behind her and straightened.

     Tarian stood there, rubbing at his chin thoughtfully for a moment.  The fact that she knew Corin could help them in persuading her to join their ranks.  It could mean less misleading tactics in gaining her trust.  Lily was far better at such tactics, so it was worth bringing to her attention.

     “I do know Corin,” Tarian admitted.  The less misleading they could be, the better.  “He first was a trainee and eventually worked under me with the new recruits.”  Having given her this tidbit of knowledge, he pushed off from the railing and began making his way across the bridge again.  To his relief, her soft footfalls joined him.  _We need to get her some shoes_ , Tarian noted to himself.  The warehouse was old and she could injure herself easily without them.  After the meeting with Squall, he would take her down to Inventory and get her some on-hand clothing.  It would be a White Fang uniform, which might put her off, but it was all they had to give.  Anything else she wanted would have to be taken care of another time.

     The rest of the journey was made in mostly silence, until they finally ascended a long stairwell that led up to the isolated roof.  It was an old stairway, rickety in some places and the banister gone in others.  At one point, Tarian paused and insisted that she go ahead of him, warning her of possible sharp objects.  He felt better knowing that he could catch her should she fall or suffer any kind of injury.  As they climbed, he berated himself for his lack of foresight.  Jumping to Squall’s suggestion had resulted in her being ill-prepared for such a venture.  He should have taken her straight to the inventory rooms to get her fitted before bringing her up here, but since they were almost at their destination, going back would be pointless.

     “If you feel suffocated in that iron box,” Tarian said as she pushed open the heavy door, “You have permission to access this roof at any time.  Either myself or Squall shall be here, so you should be fine.”

     “Squall?” Caelestis asked, turning towards him.

     “Aye, Lass, that’s my name,” came a decidedly unfamiliar, jovial voice.  Tarian blinked in surprise and slipped past Caelestis just in case something untoward had happened to his friend.

     “Who--?” Tarian began.

     “Drop your guard, young Cub,” Squall said, the rolling thick accent of the northern hills of some distant land still thickly coating his words.  “Surely you haven’t forgotten our happier times?”

     Tarian stood in mute silence, absolutely shocked at the change in demeanor and voice in his friend.  It was the still deep, rumbling voice he was used to, he realized, but the accent and tone had thrown him off completely.  He couldn’t recall a time that he had ever heard this voice from his long-time friend.

     “Perhaps you dinna remember,” Squall sighed.  “When you were laid up after—” he stopped a moment in consideration.  “Well, I was much more relaxed, then, I was.  I use the common dialect so other’s will take me seriously.”  He gave a wink to Caelestis.

     “You…” Caelestis moved past Tarian and approached Squall as cautiously as a doe entering an unknown meadowland.  “Your eyes…”

     “Aye, what of them?” Squall asked, maintaining his more relaxed and friendly persona.  Caelestis paused a few feet from him, peering up into his face that was surrounded by a flaming halo of hair.

     “They is not following me,” Caelestis noted as she stepped a few paces to the right. It was true.  The Old Lion was cocking his head towards the sound of her voice before turning to face her, as people born blind tended to do.  Caelestis was obviously turning this new piece of information over as she stared at Squall.  She must have never met a blind person before.  Slowly, as quietly as possible, she took a gentle step and gasped.  Tarian already knew what Squall was doing, and though he couldn’t see it himself, he guessed that the Old Lion was now following Caelestis with his eyes like someone who could see.  “Now they is,” Caelestis said, confirming Tarian’s suspicions.

     “Stop playing with her, Old Lion,” Tarian said with gritted teeth.

     “I dinna think she has met one like me,” Squall explained.  “I will explain to her all that I can, if the lass is willing to listen.”

     “She can barely understand me,” Tarian muttered.  “How is she going to understand anything in that accent of yours.”

     “I’m Caelestis,” Caelestis said warmly, holding out her hand.  Tarian glared at her, even though she couldn’t see it with his hat in the way. 

     “Squall, at yer service,” Squall replied graciously, taking her tiny hand in his massive one and giving it a fatherly squeeze.  Tarian turned his face between the two, the blazing power of the Lion and the soft glow of the girl, and then shrugged his shoulders in surrender. 

     “Ye is nay birthed here,” Caelestis remarked.  “Like I.”

     “Aye, lass, tis true,” Squall offered his arm to her and walked her to a partially shaded alcove that had rocks strewn about near the cliff wall.  It was an informal sitting area that Squall and Tarian often used on extremely hot days.  “I have lived here a long time, but I can never enjoy speaking their harsh tongue for long periods.” 

     Caelestis giggled at this remark.  “Ye, I, too.”  The two sat, leaving to brood in the shadow of the doorway.  He hadn’t expected them to hit it off quite so well and couldn’t quite put his finger on why she latched on to Squall so readily.

     “Ye is much like min Elder,” Caelestis said in answer to Tarian’s unspoken question, her voice tinged with sadness and regret.  “Ye can help me understand this world?”

     “Aye, I can try, Lass,” Squall said in a soft, gentle voice.  There was a moment, a brief one of silence that seemed natural but granted Tarian insight into what Squall was attempting to do.  He stood there for a moment, turning this realization over in his mind.  Placing his hand to his hat, he gave a short bow.

     “I shall leave you two to talk,” Tarian said politely.  “Perhaps later, Caelestis and I can start again.” 

     Turning, Tarian left the two to chat about their common ground.  In a way, he was grateful.  Squall was giving Caelestis something to connect with in their organization, trying to make it easier to bring her into the group without denying her too much autonomy.  It was something that Tarian could not do and something Lily would not do.  As he closed the door behind him, he smiled to himself and whispered a thanks to the old lion, and then started off briskly down the stairwell that he had treaded so carefully before.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     “I’m sorry, Onyx, but we simply cannot continue this method of searching,” Echo placed a placating hand on her friend’s shoulder and tried using her most sympathetic and coaxing voice.

     “We hardly just started!” Onyx said in disbelief.

     “It is simply impossible for six people to search an entire city with no leads,” Echo tried to explain.  Thomas, Sumi and Namid were nodding in agreement while Stav stood off to the side, glowering at all of them.  Why Stav had come was something Echo could not understand, but since Onyx ignored it, she did, too.

     “Nothing is impossible!” Onyx protested. 

     Echo sighed and glanced up at the deep green leaves above them.  They were gathered in the large park at the base of the Cross Continental Transit tower, the area being chosen as their rendezvous because of its closeness to the school and refreshing atmosphere.  For the entire day, they had searched a small section of the eastern edge of the city where the commercial area was.  Even splitting up, they had barely managed to search half of the commercial district before the signs of evening started setting in.  Onyx was discouraged, but trying not to show.

     “She is right about that much,” Sumi interjected.  “But there are better ways to spend our time than a wild goose chase.”

     “It isn’t a wild goose chase!” Onyx cried out defensively.  Echo put a restraining hand on her, gently urging her to sit on the nearby bench.

     “It is if we have nothing to go on,” Sumi finished before turning to his watercolor of the local fauna.

     “So someone in your party has some sense,” Stav grumbled to herself.  Echo bit her lower lip, trying to think of a way to smooth over the frustration.  All of them wanted to find Caelestis.  They each had their own sense of responsibility for what had happened and so had agreed to search the city unanimously.  But hours of no results and fruitless explorations had worn everyone’s nerves.

     “Maybe we should try another way of searching,” Echo suggested brightly.

     “That is an idea,” Thomas looked up from his book and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.  He closed and pocketed the book, indicating that he was ready to listen.  Quietly, in the back of her mind, she thanked her team for not trying to “train” her today.

     “But our options are limited,” Namid pointed out with a flick of her hair.  “We aren’t Faunus, so we are automatically excluded from any kind of interaction with their recruitments.  That’s a bust.  As far as the Headmistress says, they took her by car right outside the school.  Ain’t no tracking that!”

     “But maybe if we try to think about this more rationally,” Echo prompted.

     “I know!” Onyx rose up from her seat and took several steps away from them until she was standing in one of the small clearings.

     “Oh, no…” Echo put a hand to her forehead to hide her face and let out an exasperated sigh.

     “What is it?” Sumi asked curiously, raising his head from his painting.

     “She’s doing that again,” Echo sighed.

     “What?” Namid asked.

     Onyx stood in the clearing and found her bearings, facing north.  She held out her left arm straight before her while keeping her right held up against her chest.  She called out the names of each of the directions, turning to face each one, and then repeated the sequence, replacing the name of the directions with numbers.  At last, she stopped on ten, holding both arms in close to her chest.

     “She is going to chose where to search based on chance,” Echo sighed.

     “Does it work?” Sumi seemed very curious about this and was putting away his paints and papers to watch more closely.

     “About as often as could be expected,” Echo gave a wry smile.  “If two numbers are the same, or if she gets a number and zero, it means it is only that direction.  If she gets two neighbor numbers, say one and two, then she would go north east.  If she gets two numbers that are opposites, she does it over again.”

     “Very scientific,” Thomas said with just a hint of sarcasm.

     “She does this when she is desperate,” Echo confided.  “She is really terribly worried about Caelestis.  I don’t blame her, but this will not help us…”

     “We go north!” Onyx called out, a new glimmer of hope in her voice.

     “Well, no worse than systematically dividing the city and going over each section one at a time,” Thomas shrugged and fell in step with Onyx.

     “Yeah, except we have a higher chance of searching the same area over and over again,” Echo said to herself more than anyone else.  She glanced over at Stav, who was listening silently to the entire situation.  Sighing at her friend’s eccentricities, she moved to catch up when Stav’s hand stopped her.

     “Keep her out of trouble for now,” Stav said sharply.

     “S...Stav?” Echo blinked in surprise. 

     “I have an idea, but it is better I go alone,” Stav explained.  Stav’s words seemed to be laced with poison as she spoke, making Echo wonder if she really intended to help find Caelestis or not.  She had seemed to look as hard as the rest of them, on a grudging level, but seeing the angry glint in her eyes gave Echo pause.

     “A...are you sure?” Echo asked, angry at herself for allowing a stutter.

     “Once this fiasco is done, my debt is paid,” Stav said in reply.  She turned her burning amber eyes on Echo, an unspoken promise hiding behind the demonic fury that seemed to cloud her thinking. 

     “I shall keep her on the straight and narrow,” Echo promised.  Stav gave an unfeminine grunt of agreement and then took off into the forest-like park on her own secret errands.  Echo watched her for a few moments, wondering what it was that Stav would do.  With a shrug, she turned and made haste to catch up with the rest of the group already far ahead.  For some reason, she felt the chill of foreboding skitter down her spine.  Up ahead, she saw her dear childhood friend marching in determination to an unknown destination, the single goal of finding her lost friend giving her acute tunnel vision.  Behind her, the less sociable colleague was running off into a pit of shadow that no one could really see except her.  Between all of this was Echo and her team, trying to stick by them, help them, keep them from falling out into those unknown roads.  Through all of it, Echo was certain about one specific thing: they couldn’t stop the flow of events.  Echo believed in Destiny to a point, and she felt like everything was being directed by that unseen hand.  And she was scared.

Scared of losing her lifelong friend.

 


	25. Note to reader

Dear Readers:

I would like to really apologize for the long hiatus of my story. It has been a crazy couple of years, and writing is more of a thing I do on the side for fun than a huge focus in my life. The story of team COGS will continue sporadically over the next few months, hopefully with more steam as things calm down. I greatly appreciate you enjoying and reading the story. There will probably be more art updates on the characters, and they have a chance of being more frequent because art is my primary drive (and maintainer of sanity hehe).

You can check my art blog on deviantart under Anjyil. I have a secondary one under mgarakawa that will eventually being selling prints of the characters and other works as well.

Thank you again for reading and not flaming me for my absence. I never understood why some writers flicker out like that, but now I do and I have a greater appreciation for their work and lives than I did before. It is always good to learn :)


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